Vitol has announced that Phillips 66, Uniper and VPI Immingham have entered into a memorandum of understanding to develop Humber Zero.
The project, set to be operational in the mid-2020s, is aligned with the wider Humber Industrial Decarbonisation Deployment Project. It will initially decarbonise 8Mt per annum of CO2 emissions, before having the potential to target 30Mt from the wider Humber Cluster to the west of Immingham. It will see post combustion capture on two of the three existing generators at VPI Immingham and selected processing units at the Humber refinery. This will be combined with the development of a hydrogen hub, producing both green and blue hydrogen, to serve a third generator and local industry.
Making the announcement, Vitol outlined how as well as being able to integrate carbon capture technology into a pre-existing cluster of energy intensive industries, the coastal location of Humber Zero allows for efficient offtake of CO2 into offshore depleted oil and gas fields. It also provides access to offshore wind developments for electrolysis.
Jonathan Briggs, Project Director for Humber Zero, said: “Humber Zero delivers a world scale decarbonisation project built around one of the UK’s most efficient generating assets and an industrial hub in Immingham. It can establish the foundation for a gateway to decarbonise the wider Humber, bringing new industries, sectors and jobs to the region.”
