BP Plans To Turn Teesside Into First Green Hydrogen Hub
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article in The Times.
This is the first paragraph.
BP plans to build Britain’s biggest “green hydrogen” facility on Teesside to produce the clean fuel for use in new hydrogen-powered lorries and other transport.
Note.
The plans appear to be ambitious starting with a £100 million investment to build a 60 MW electrolyser by 2025, which would rise to as much as 500 MW by 2030.
The electrolyser will be paired with an upwards of a billion pound one gigawatt facility called H2Teesside, that will produce blue hydrogen.
I think there could be more to this than meets the eye.
Using The Carbon Dioxide Rather than Storing It!
I followed the carbon dioxide pipe from the CF fertiliser plant on Teesside using Google maps after seeing a film about it on the BBC. It goes to the Quorn factory and a massive greenhouse. I do wonder, if BP is talking to other companies, who also have a need for large quantities of good quality carbon dioxide.
One could be an Australian company, called Mineral Carbonation International, who have developed a process to convert carbon dioxide into building products like blocks and plasterboard. MCI won a prize at COP26, so could BP be looking at integrating one of these plants into their complex on Teesside?
The Electrolysers
Will BP be purchasing their electrolysers for green hydrogen from ITM Power in Sheffield?
This press release from ITM Power is entitled 12MW Electrolyser Sale.
The customer is not named, but could this be a starter kit for BP?
Alstom’s Hydrogen Aventras
In Alstom And Eversholt Rail Sign An Agreement For The UK’s First Ever Brand-New Hydrogen Train Fleet, I came to this conclusion.
This modern hydrogen train from Alstom is what is needed.
I also felt there could be three similar trains; electric, battery-electric and hydrogen, which would help operators hedge their bets on what type of traction to use.
Teesside must be one of the more likelier places where the Hydrogen Aventras will be carrying passengers.
I wrote about this possibility in Alstom Hydrogen Aventras And Teesside.
A deal between BP and Alstom would surely be in the interest of both companies.
- Alstom would get a local hydrogen supply.
- BP would get a first sale.
- BP would get excellent publicity and a local demonstration of the possibilities of hydrogen.
It might even be possible to supply the hydrogen by pipeline.
The Anonymous Widower 
Teesside must be one of the more likelier places where the Hydrogen Aventras will be carrying passengers? Well yes that’s not an unreasonable conclusion, the June Edition of Modern Railways says that the 10, 3-car Aventra sets will be used by Northern in revenue services replacing Class 156 and 158 dmus.
As regards the 60 MW electrolyser being built by 2025, I sure you meant to say that it is projected to generate 500 MW by 2030, not 3030.
It’ll be interesting how quickly they can get the cost of hydrogen production down though
Comment by fammorris | November 29, 2021 |
Thanks for the correction. I’ve read somewhere that ITM power’s electrolyser factory is highly automated and that must surely help.
But I think the biggest saving will come from innovative finance. I used to own half of a finance company, that lent money on the strangest things, that mainstream finance wouldn’t look at. Fairground rides were one thing, which were ignored by major finance companies, but we found them safe, unless you objected to getting all the repayments in fifty pence pieces.
I’ve also been close friends to two of the most innovative accountants and a brilliant banker, who had devised means of funding anything. A hundred million for a good idea? No problem!
Comment by AnonW | November 29, 2021 |
[…] Teesside is certainly getting the green hydrogen it needs, as there is also a 400 MW hydrogen project on Teesside, that I wrote about in BP Plans To Turn Teesside Into First Green Hydrogen Hub. […]
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