Uniper, Shell to move forward with blue hydrogen at Uniper’s Killingholme station

Uniper and Shell have signed an agreement to progress plans to produce blue hydrogen at Uniper’s Killingholme power station site, in the East of England.  

The Humber Hub Blue Project includes plans for a blue hydrogen production facility with a capacity of up to 720 megawatts (MW), using gas reformation technology with carbon capture and storage (CCS), Uniper said in a statement.

The company said that Killingholme could see the capture of approximately 1.6 million metric tonnes (Mt) of carbon per year through CCS. 

"The Humber Hub Blue Project is a key part of Uniper’s hydrogen ambitions in the UK and we’re extremely pleased that Shell is joining us on this initiative,” said Axel Wietfeld, CEO of Uniper Hydrogen.

The captured carbon would be fed through the proposed Zero Carbon Humber onshore pipeline, part of the East Coast Cluster, Uniper said. The  Zero Carbon Humber has been recently selected as one of two carbon capture and storage schemes to receive initial government. 

"We’ve set ambitious targets for hydrogen production in our British Energy Security Strategy and are investing £360 million in innovative energy technologies to get us there. Today’s announcement shows real confidence in hydrogen - creating high-quality jobs to level up the Humberside region, based on this clean, cutting-edge new super fuel,” said British Minister of State for Business, Energy and Clean Growth Greg Hands in the statement.

The Humber Hub Blue Project recently passed the eligibility criteria for Phase-2 of the Government’s Cluster Sequencing Process.

The UK government will announce shortlisted projects for funding from May 2022.