Ineos plans to produce and use low-carbon hydrogen at its Grangemouth refinery and petrochemical plant in Scotland, in combination with the Acorn carbon capture and storage facility, as it seeks to reduce its CO2 emissions, the company said Sept. 22.
Ineos Grangemouth will invest over GBP1 billion ($1.4 billion) as part of its plans to cut emissions from the site by 60% by 2030, and zero by 2045, in line with the Scottish government's target.The company plans to "move to the production and use of hydrogen by all businesses at the Grangemouth site" by 2030, along with CCS of at least 1 million mt/year, Ineos said in a statement.
The project will capture CO2 from existing hydrogen production, and also construct a "world-scale" hydrogen production plant with CCS facility.
"Our road map builds on the significant reductions we've already made at Grangemouth," Ineos Grangemouth Chairman Andrew Gardner said in a statement. "When INEOS bought the site in 2005 it was emitting around 5 million mt of CO2 per year. We've already reduced that to 3 million mt/year."
"Our next step, to use hydrogen combined with carbon capture via the Acorn project, will reduce this to below 2 million mt/year," Gardner said.
The GBP1 billion comes on top of a GBP500 million commitment to CO2 reduction plans underway at Grangemouth. It includes investment in the company's New Energy Plant, due for completion in 2023, to supply energy to the site, with a 150,000 mt/year reduction in CO2 emissions through efficiency measures.
"Low-carbon hydrogen offers the swiftest decarbonization route for our industrial sector and today's commitment by Ineos makes an even stronger case for the UK government to select the Scottish Cluster, which Ineos partnered with in the summer, to be among the first CCS clusters to be awarded funding through its current cluster sequencing process," Scottish government's Net Zero Secretary Michael Matheson said in the statement.
S&P Global Platts assessed the cost of producing hydrogen via alkaline electrolysis in the UK (including capex) at GBP10.20/kg ($13.93/kg) Sept. 21. PEM electrolysis production was assessed at GBP12.16/kg, while blue hydrogen production by autothermal reforming was GBP4.09/kg (including capex, CCS and carbon).
