Decarbonisation Technology August 2022 issue

HyNet’s foundations HyNet was conceived around five years ago. The story starts with the demand from industry to contribute to the journey to net zero. Figure 3 shows the demand for the infrastructure that HyNet is building. Progressive Energy is working with major industrial organisations across the North West to support their switch across to low-carbon hydrogen or capture their carbon emissions. The driver for this change comes from both business-to-business and end-user consumers recognising that this is not just about decarbonisation but value creation, allowing them to differentiate themselves. The users of the Hynet infrastructure are given in Figure 3. Around three-quarters of partners and associated companies are looking to decarbonise by fuel switching to low-carbon hydrogen, with some also using the HyNet infrastructure to safely transport and store the CO₂ they produce. Key partners The location of HyNet gives access to the Liverpool Bay depleted gas fields owned by Eni. This represents a low-cost, low-risk site for CCS (see Figure 4 ). The gas field is serviced through an existing pipeline, originally used to transport the natural gas from the offshore field, which will be repurposed to deliver the CO₂ to the offshore CCS site, shown in orange in Figure 4 . The pipeline will be extended to reach the Ellesmere Port industrial zone, with Essar’s refinery located at the Stanlow Manufacturing Complex. Encirc, the largest bottling plant in the UK, will use locally produced hydrogen to power Encirc’s furnaces, reducing carbon emissions by more

1200

UK territorial emissions

1000

800

600

UK consumption emissions

400

200

Figure 2 UK greenhouse emissions (MtCO₂ eq/yr) 1990-2017

much greater share of the UK’s energy sector, a level of fossil resources will form an inevitable part of our energy system in the short term to transition successfully. And so, projects like HyNet must not only deliver renewable energy into the future but also capture the carbon emissions produced in the short term, targeting hard-to-abate sectors of the economy, such as heavy industry. The UK Climate Change Committee monitors the trend in UK greenhouse gas emissions and shows that over the last 25 years, emissions have fallen from around 800 million tonnes of CO₂ eq/ yr (0.8 GT) in 1990 to around 450 million tonnes by 2017. However, when the carbon embedded in imported products is factored in, our consumption emissions over the same period have held pretty constant at roughly 800 Mt/yr (see Figure 2 ). So how can the UK solve this? HyNet will use carbon capture, an almost 50-year-old solution for storing CO₂, then transport the CO₂ to the depleted oil and gas fields for permanent storage.

than 90%. This will enable the manufacture of billions of low- carbon glass bottles, create over 200 new jobs, and grow a skills base fit for the future to establish the region as the global centre of excellence for glass innovation. Hanson’s Padeswood cement plant produces CO₂ as an inherent part of the cement-making process. The HyNet infrastructure will safely transport and securely store 800,000 t/yr CO₂ from this facility.

Figure 3 HyNet demand led decarbonisation