Jim Ratcliffe Mothballs UK Plants Over ‘Ridiculously High Gas Price’
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article in The Times.
These three paragraphs give more details.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s Ineos is mothballing three chemical plants in Hull in response to Britain’s “ridiculously high gas price”.
The plants directly employ 245 people producing acetyls, which are used as raw materials for everything from pharmaceuticals to food and military explosives. Ineos said the sites support almost 4,000 jobs in the wider supply chain across Humberside.
Ineos’s Hull acetyls plants “just cannot compete” as gas prices are now 12 times higher in Britain than in the United States, Ratcliffe said. The plants use gas as a feedstock and also burn hydrogen derived from gas as an energy source to power chemical production.
I don’t think, that this story, is as simple as it seems.
Consider.
- Sir Jim Ratcliffe graduated from the University of Birmingham in 1974 with a degree in chemical engineering.
- The plants in Hull make acetyls.
- The acetyl group has a Wikipedia entry.
- From my own experience, the 1970s was an exciting time for chemical engineering.
- ICI were trying to use a process purchased from BASF to make acetylene, which failed miserably, as all the process did was coat Runcorn in soot.
- Did ICI use the acetylene to make acetyls?
- Google AI says you can make acetyl-containing compounds, such as acetic acid and vinyl acetate, starting from acetylene.
- For a time, I shared an office, with a fellow Liverpool University graduate, who was helping to get the ICI plant working.
In the end the ICI plant was dismantled.
Has Sir Jim Ratcliffe A Connection To HiiROC?
I asked Google AI this question and received this reply.
Yes, Sir Jim Ratcliffe has an indirect financial and strategic connection to HiiROC through his petrochemical company, INEOS.
The INEOS Connection: INEOS backed HydrogenOne Capital Growth—a hydrogen-focused investment fund—which made a £10 million equity investment in HiiROC to develop affordable “turquoise hydrogen” (clean hydrogen produced via thermal plasma electrolysis).
Shared Industrial Projects: HiiROC has collaborated on low-carbon hydrogen projects in the Humberside region close to major INEOS operational footprints, connecting clean-tech hydrogen initiatives with heavy UK industrial chemical hubs.
Note.
- The last paragraph, I clipped from The Times mentioned hydrogen.
- The HiiROC process can use any hydrocarbon gas as feedstock and is five times more energy efficient than traditional electrolysis.
- HiiROC is backed technically by the University of Hull.
- The ICI plant produced loads of soot and HiiROC produces carbon black, so I wonder, if the two processes are by any chance related?
It strikes me that some of the various interests have come up with a route to creating acetyls, that is more efficient.
I suspect Sir Jim Ratcliffe will disclose a clever plan at some time.
What Is The Connection Between The University Of Hull And HiiROC?
I asked Google AI this question and received this reply.
The University of Hull and HiiROC have a collaborative partnership focused on developing clean energy technology.
Nature of the ConnectionTechnology
Collaboration: HiiROC worked collaboratively with the University of Hull (leveraging regional programs like those from the university’s Aura Innovation Centre) to help develop and test Thermal Plasma Electrolysis (TPE).
Clean Energy Innovation: This proprietary TPE technology converts biomethane, flare gas, or natural gas into clean “emerald” hydrogen and valuable solid carbon black without greenhouse gas emissions.
By-Product Research: The partnership includes joint efforts to research potential commercial uses for carbon black, the solid carbon by-product created during HiiROC’s hydrogen-generation process.
Regional Growth: HiiROC established its development and testing facilities in Hull to advance this technology, working alongside local academic and business innovation networks tied to the university.
From my experience in the 1960s at ICI Mond Division in Cheshire, I believe that this could be one of the most important research projects in the UK.
Could INEOS Be Going To Collect All Their Flare Gas In Hull?
Consider.
- The HiiROC process can use any hydrocarbon gas as feedstock.
- This would include chemical plant flare gas, biomethane and natural gas.
- The HiiROC process extracts the hydrogen as hydrogen gas.
- The HiiROC process extracts the carbon as carbon black.
I have seven questions.
- Suppose INEOS collected all the flare gas from their chemical plants in Hull, could they use this as feedstock in a HiiROC process to create hydrogen efficiently?
- Could they collect biomethane from Humberside and mix this with the flare gas?
- Could they bring in extra flare gas from chemical plants elsewhere in the UK and Europe using coastal gas tankers or rail tankers?
- Could INEOS use natural gas, if they were short of flare gas and biomethane?
- Could any excess hydrogen be stored in Aldbrough or Rough gas storage?
- Could any excess hydrogen be sold on to other companies?
- Could hydrogen be used to make the acetyls?
I suspect that all questions have an answer in the affirmative.
Conclusion
I feel that Sir Jim Ratcliffe made a very shrewd investment in HiiROC.
No Panic At The Pumps … South Koreans Just Stop Driving On Wednesdays
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on The Times.
This is the sub-heading.
President Lee Jae-myung has urged the public to ‘save every drop of fuel’ and introduced a number-plate rotation to keep drivers off the road
These first three paragraphs deeply illustrate the differences between the energy situation in North and South Korea.
From the lookout point atop Mount Dora, in the heart of the demilitarised zone that has separated the peninsula since 1953, you can clearly see where South Korea ends and North Korea begins.
The trees that proliferate across Korea’s undulating topography come to an abrupt halt. On the land that sits beyond, a farmer can be seen guiding an ox pulling a plough.
Sealed off from the world economy for 73 years, communist North Korea has resorted to cutting down much of its vegetation to burn for fuel. Democratic South Korea, by contrast, has established deep global trading ties that allow the country to import vital natural resources it cannot produce domestically.
North Korean communism certainly can’t be considered green.
I find these two paragraphs extremely significant.
South Korea may have to import almost all of its crude oil, but the country plays a huge role in refining it into petrol, diesel and jet fuel before shipping it around the world. This means that demand from overseas for Korea’s refined products is greater than ever, which has forced the government to step in. The country’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy has implemented mandatory caps on refined petroleum products.
Of all South Korea’s refined products, kerosene, or jet fuel, is the most in demand. The country is one of the biggest exporters of jet fuel in the world. The US, for instance, relies on it for 70 per cent of its total jet fuel imports.
They could also be problematical for the country, as they will surely need to replace these jet fuel exports with exports of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
Most viable processes, that I’ve seen need the following ingredients.
- Lots of hydrogen or masses of GWhs of electricity to make it.
- Some carbon atoms, which can even be captured from the air or a gas-fired power station.
- Some form of Fischer-Tropsch process to force the atoms to make sustainable aviation fuel.
There are several companies that can do this, with British ones seeming to often to be connected to Oxford University.
There is also this Anglo-Korean connection over hydrogen.
I asked Google AI, who are investors in innovative hydrogen production company; HiiROC, which is a spin-out of the University of Hull, and received this answer.
HiiROC, a UK-based developer of “turquoise” hydrogen technology, is backed by a consortium of major industrial and financial players, including Centrica, Melrose Industries, HydrogenOne Capital Growth, Hyundai, Kia, Wintershall Dea, VNG, and Cemex Ventures. The company has raised over £40 million to develop its thermal plasma electrolysis technology.
Note the presence of two of the biggest Korean companies ; Hyundai and Kia.
HiiROC is also five times more efficient than traditional electrolysis.
Google AI says this about South Korean offshore wind.
South Korea is aggressively developing its offshore wind sector, targeting 14.3 GW to 15 GW of installed capacity by 2030, with over 116 projects and 44 GW of capacity under development. The country aims for a 2030 renewable energy share of 20-30%, leveraging floating technology for massive projects like the 3.2 GW Jindo project.
It appears to me, that South Korea will replace their market share of the jet fuel market with sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
I’m also sure, that if the Koreans need to produce more hydrogen to make more SAF to power the world’s aircraft, Centrica will help them to rent some of our empty seas.
I can see the Koreans, with a little help from their friends, including the UK, dominating the SAF market.
Cummins To Cease New Electrolyser Activity Amid Worsening Market
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Renewables Now.
These are the first three paragraphs.
Cummins Inc has decided to stop new commercial activity in the electrolysers space following a strategic review of the segment launched last year, citing deteriorating market conditions and weakening customer demand.
The decision is linked to USD 458 million (EUR 388.4m) of charges for the full-year 2025 related to the electrolyser business within the company’s zero-emission technologies arm, Accelera, of which USD 415 million were non-cash charges.
The company noted that it will continue to fulfil existing customer commitments before winding down new commercial activity in the segment.
Although, I am in favour of using hydrogen as a fuel, I recognise, that traditional electrolysis is not the most efficient process.
These methods are more efficient.
HiiROC
- HiiROC use a process, that they call Thermal Plasma Electrolysis to split any hydrocarbon gas into hydrogen and carbon black.
- HiiROC originated in the University of Hull.
- Typical gases that can be used are chemical plant off-gas, biomethane and methane.
- I like the ability to use chemical plant off-gas, as some of this is particularly nasty and HiiROC may offer safe disposal.
But the big advantage is that the HiiROC process is five times more energy efficient than traditional electrolysis.
The carbon black is no useless by-product, but has several valuable uses in its own right, which are detailed in its Wikipedia entry.
These two paragraphs from Wikipedia, give a summary of the more common uses of carbon black.
The most common use (70%) of carbon black is as a reinforcing phase in automobile tires. Carbon black also helps conduct heat away from the tread and belt area of the tire, reducing thermal damage and increasing tire life. Its low cost makes it a common addition to cathodes and anodes and is considered a safe replacement to lithium metal in lithium-ion batteries. About 20% of world production goes into belts, hoses, and other non-tire rubber goods. The remaining 10% use of carbon black comes from pigment in inks, coatings, and plastics, as well as being used as a conductive additive in lithium-ion batteries.
Carbon black is added to polypropylene because it absorbs ultraviolet radiation, which otherwise causes the material to degrade. Carbon black particles are also employed in some radar absorbent materials, in photocopier and laser printer toner, and in other inks and paints. The high tinting strength and stability of carbon black has also provided use in coloring of resins and films. Carbon black has been used in various applications for electronics. A good conductor of electricity, carbon black is used as a filler mixed in plastics, elastomer, films, adhesives, and paints. It is used as an antistatic additive agent in automobile fuel caps and pipes.
It can also be used as a soil improver in agriculture.
HiiROC would appear to be five times more energy efficient than traditional electrolysis.
I would also rate the range of their investors as a particular strength.
Google AI lists these companies as investors.
HiiROC, a UK-based developer of plasma torch technology for “turquoise” hydrogen production, is backed by a consortium of industrial and strategic investors. Key investors include Centrica, Melrose Industries, Hyundai Motor Company, Kia, HydrogenOne Capital, CEMEX Ventures, Wintershall Dea, and VNG.
Note.
- CEMEX must be going to decarbonise cement making.
- Melrose describe themselves as an industry-leading aerospace technology provider.
- Will we be seeing hydrogen cars from Korean manufacturers?
- Wintershall Dea is Europe’s leading independent gas and oil company.
HiiROC has an impressive list of investors.
Bloom Energy
I wrote about Bloom Energy’s process in Westinghouse And Bloom Energy To Team Up For Pink Hydrogen.
This method also looks promising.
- Westinghouse Electric Company is an American builder of nuclear power stations.
- Bloom Energy Corporation make a solid-oxide electrolyser.
- Pink hydrogen is green hydrogen produced using nuclear power.
It uses electrolysis at a higher temperature, which speeds it up.
Desert Bloom
This is an Australian process, that I wrote about in 10GW Green Hydrogen Project Aims To Electrolyze Water Drawn From Desert Air.
Conclusion
You can understand, why Cummins are getting jumpy!
But you have to remember that when I worked in a hydrogen plant in the 1960s, the hydrogen was an unwanted by-product and it was mixed with coal gas and sent down the power station to raise steam, so that it could be used to do something useful.
Siemens Gamesa, Ørsted Link Up With UK Universities To Boost Wind Turbine Efficiency
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on offshoreWIND.biz.
This is the sub-heading.
A major collaboration between universities and energy companies has made “vital” improvements to offshore wind turbines, which could help them generate more renewable energy and reduce the UK’s reliance on fossil fuels.
This paragraph outlines the research.
The GBP 7.7 million partnership between the Universities of Sheffield, Durham, Hull, and two global energy companies, Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy and Ørsted, could help offshore wind turbines run for longer periods of time – boosting the amount of energy each wind farm generates.
We may not manufacture a large proportion of wind turbines, but companies do turn to UK universities, when they need important research to be done.
