Centrica Secures Investment Stake In Gasrec Helping Boost UK Bio-LNG Ambitions
The title of this post, is the same as that of this press release from Centrica.
This is the sub-heading.
Centrica has secured a minority stake in Gasrec, the UK’s largest dual provider of bio-LNG (bio-Liquified Natural Gas) and bio-CNG (bio-Compressed Natural Gas) to the road transport sector,
These first two paragraphs give more details.
Gasrec says the investment will drive the next phase of its infrastructure ambitions, with plans to open a UK wide network of open-access refuelling stations supplying renewable bio-LNG for the decarbonisation of heavy goods vehicles.
Centrica is taking a 16% stake and becomes one of three major shareholders in Gasrec, alongside global integrated energy company bp and private family office 44 North.
I have some thoughts.
Does Running A Truck On bio-LNG or bio-CNG. Reduce Carbon Emissions?
This paragraph from the press release, gives the thoughts of Chris O’Shea, who is Group Chief Executive, Centrica.
Chris O’Shea, Group Chief Executive, Centrica plc, said: “Demand for bio-LNG for transport is growing fast as more HGV operators make the switch – drawn by a clean, ready-to-use fuel which slashes CO2 emissions by up to 85 per cent in comparison to diesel*. This investment in Gasrec enhances our collaboration with the leading company in the sector, and puts us in a strong position to energise a vital sector of the industry on its journey to net zero.”
As Centrica is a public company, with shareholders, who would take a dim view of Mr. O’Shea telling porkies, I suspect we can assume that the following is true.
Drawn by a clean, ready-to-use fuel which slashes CO2 emissions by up to 85 per cent in comparison to diesel.
The asterisk in the full quote, refers to this note.
Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership, Innovate UK and Office for Low Emission Vehicles, Low Emission Freight & Logistics Trial (LEFT), Key Findings, November 2020. Using specific feedstocks CO2 reductions of 200% are achievable.
Centrica could be being conservative with their claims.
Decarbonising Buses, Locomotives And Trucks
Despite what Elon Musk, would have us believe, electric trucks will not dominate the future of freight transport.
An electric truck would be the vehicle equivalent of asking Usain Bolt to run a hundred metres with a large refrigerator on his back.
Trucks are going to need a fuel without a weight penalty and with a long range.
I asked Google for information about Cummins diesel, natural gas and hydrogen engines and received this AI Overview.
Cummins offers engines powered by diesel, natural gas, and hydrogen. While diesel engines are well-established, Cummins is also developing both natural gas and hydrogen engines, particularly focusing on hydrogen as a pathway to zero-carbon solutions for various applications. Cummins utilizes a fuel-agnostic platform, meaning a common base engine can be adapted for different fuel types, including diesel, natural gas, and hydrogen.
Recently, GB Railfreight purchased thirty Class 99 locomotives from Stadler.
- They can use electrification, where it exists.
- Where electrification doesn’t exist, they can use an onboard Cummins diesel engine, which is built in Darlington.
- In electric-mode, they have 6.2 MW of power, and are the most powerful locomotives ever to run on UK railways.
- In diesel-mode, they have 1.8 MW of power, which is more than enough to haul a large container train in and out of Felixstowe.
I had thought that at some future date, Cummins would convert these locomotives to electro-hydrogen.
But now that Gasrec is providing bio-LNG and bio-CNG, GB Railfreight, have the option of converting both hydrogen and biomethane.
Similar logic can be applied to Wrightbus’s Streetdeck Ultroliner, one version of which is fitted with a Cummins engine, that can be converted to electric, hydrogen or natural gas, which of course includes biomethane. This page on the Wrightbus web site describes the bus.
Wrightbus are also going back into coach manufacture, as I wrote about in Wrightbus Goes Back To The Future As It Relaunches The Contour Coach. As with the Streetdeck Ultroliner, Cummins seem to be providing one of the power units.
It seems to me, that the zero- and low-carbon revolution in transport will generate a need for the availability of biomethane, hydrogen and natural gas fuel for transport all over the country.
Gasrec with around twenty biomethane fuelling points around the country, seem well-placed to supply the biomethane in bio-LNG or bio-CNG form.
Could Gasrec Deliver Hydrogen?
Various bus companies in the UK, have had difficulty getting the fuel for their hydrogen buses.
I believe that delivering hydrogen would be very similar to delivering LNG and if Gasrec can deliver LNG successfully and safely, they probably have the technology to do the same for hydrogen.
Centrica Seem To Be Assembling An Interesting Consortium
These are some deals, that I have reported on this blog, that involve Centrica.
- Centrica, along with Hyundai, Kia, Siemens and others have backed Hull-based hydrogen start-up; HiiROC, who can produce affordable hydrogen from any hydrocarbon gas including natural gas, where it is needed.
- Centrica have invested in Sizewell C. Will they be using their share of the electricity to make affordable pink hydrogen using HiiROC?
- In Centrica And Ryze Agree To Develop Hydrogen Pathway, I talked about how Centrica and Ryse were aiming to bring hydrogen to the masses.
- In Recurrent Energy’s Middle Road Project Sold To Centrica, I talked about a Centrica investment in solar power.
- In Aberdeen’s Exceed Secures Centrica Rough Contract, I talked about how Centrica were redeveloping the Rough gas storage site for hydrogen.
- In Lhyfe And Centrica To Develop Offshore Renewable Green Hydrogen In The UK, I talked about developing offshore hydrogen.
- In Centrica Announces Hydrogen Ready Combined Heat And Power Partnership With 2G, the title says it all.
- In Centrica Signs UK Biomethane Agreement With Yorkshire Water And SGN Commercial Services, Centrica appear to be sourcing biomethane from Yorkshire Water.
- In Centrica Invests In Renewable Energy Storage Capabilities To Boost UK’s Energy Security And Accelerate Transition To Net Zero, I talk about Centrica, Goldman Sachs and others, investment in liquid-air energy storage company; Highview Power.
- In British Gas Owner Mulls Mini-Nuke Challenge To Rolls-Royce, I talk about rumours that Centrica might invest in SMRs.
Note.
- A lot of these deals are are about hydrogen production.
- Some of these deals are about biomethane production.
- None of these deals talk about getting hydrogen and biomethane to customers.
It appears to me, that Gasrec have a model that works to get hydrogen, methane and biomethane from production and storage to the end customers.
Developing A Rural Hydrogen Network
In Developing A Rural Hydrogen Network, I talked about supplying all those millions of off-gas grid properties with hydrogen for heating, agricultural and industrial purposes, in the countryside of the UK.
Gasrec have the technology to decarbonise the countryside.
Conclusion
Gasrec would appear to be a very useful partner for Centrica.
RWE, Masdar Move Forward With 3 GW Dogger Bank South Offshore Wind Farms
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on offshoreWIND.biz.
This is the sub-heading.
The UK’s Planning Inspectorate has concluded its six-month Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP) examination period for the Dogger Bank South (DBS) offshore wind farms, being developed by RWE and Abu Dhabi’s Masdar.
These two introductory paragraphs add more details.
Since the start of the examination this January, the Planning Inspectorate has assessed the environmental, socio-economic, and technical attributes of the DBS projects against the UK’s standards for sustainable infrastructure development.
The Inspectorate plans to prepare and submit a detailed report with recommendations to the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero within the next three months, and a consent decision is expected within the next six months.
The development of this wind farm moves on.
- The lease with the Crown Estate was signed in Jan 2023.
- In November 2023, Masdar took a 49 % stake as I reported in RWE Partners With Masdar For 3 GW Dogger Bank South Offshore Wind Projects.
But there is no completion date anywhere for the whole project, that I can find with Google.
If you type RWE offshore electrolysis into Google AI, you get this answer.
RWE is actively involved in several hydrogen projects utilizing offshore wind power for electrolysis, particularly in the Netherlands and Germany. These projects aim to produce green hydrogen, which is then used in various applications like industrial processes, transportation, and potentially for export. RWE is a major player in offshore wind and is leveraging this experience to advance hydrogen production.
Note.
- RWE are one of the largest, if not the largest electricity generator in the UK.
- In RWE Opens ‘Grimsby Hub’ For Offshore Wind Operations And Maintenance, I stated that RWE are developing almost 12 GW of offshore wind power around our shores.
So just as RWE are utilizing offshore wind power for electrolysis, particularly in the Netherlands and Germany, could they be also be planning to do the same in UK waters with the Dogger Bank South wind farm?
The hydrogen would be brought ashore in a pipeline.
There would be no need for any 3 GW overhead power lines marching across East Yorkshire and around the town of Beverley.
Two large hydrogen stores are being developed at Aldbrough and Rough in East Yorkshire.
H2ercules And AquaVentus
These are two massive German projects, that will end the country’s reliance on Russian gas and coal.
- H2ercules is a series of pipelines that will distribute the hydrogen in Southern Germany.
- AquaVentus will build a network of pipelines to bring 10.3 GW of green hydrogen from the North Sea to the German mainland for H2ercules to distribute.
Germany is embracing hydrogen in a big way.
- I introduce AquaVentus in AquaVentus, which I suggest you read.
- AquaVentus is being developed by RWE.
- AquaVentus connects to a German hydrogen network called H2ercules to actually distribute the hydrogen.
This video shows the structure of AquaVentus.
I clipped this map from the video.
Note.
- The thick white line running North-West/South-East is the spine of AquaVentus, that will deliver hydrogen to Germany.
- There is a link to Esbjerg in Denmark, that is marked DK.
- There appears to be an undeveloped link to Norway, which goes North,
- There appears to be an undeveloped link to Peterhead in Scotland, that is marked UK.
- There appears to be a link to just North of the Humber in England, that is marked UK.
- Just North of the Humber are the two massive gas storage sites of Aldbrough owned by SSE and Rough owned by Centrica.
- Aldbrough and Rough gas storage sites are being converted into two of the largest hydrogen storage sites in the world!
- There appear to be small ships sailing up and down the East Coast of the UK. Are these small coastal tankers, that are distributing the hydrogen to where it is needed?
When it is completed, AquaVentus will be a very comprehensive hydrogen network.
I believe that offshore electrolysers could be built in the area of the Hornsea 4, Dogger Bank South and other wind farms and the hydrogen generated would be taken by AquaVentus to either Germany or the UK.
- Both countries get the hydrogen they need.
- Excess hydrogen would be stored in Aldbrough and Rough.
- British Steel at Scunthorpe gets decarbonised.
- A 1.8 GW hydrogen-fired powerstation at Keadby gets the hydrogen it needs to backup the wind farms.
Germany and the UK get security in the supply of hydrogen.
Ørsted Pulls Plug On 2.4 GW Hornsea 4 Offshore Wind Project In UK
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on offshoreWIND.biz.
This is the sub-heading.
Ørsted has discontinued the development of the UK’s Hornsea 4 offshore wind farm in its current form. The developer said the 2.4 GW project has faced rising supply chain costs, higher interest rates, and increased construction and delivery risks since the Contract for Difference (CfD) award in Allocation Round 6 (AR6) in September 2024.
This introductory paragraph adds more detail.
In combination, these developments have increased the execution risk and deteriorated the value creation of the project, which led to Ørsted stopping further spending on the project at this time and terminating the project’s supply chain contracts, according to the Danish company. This means that the firm will not deliver Hornsea 4 under the CfD awarded in AR6.
Consider.
- Hornsea 4 will be connected to the grid at a new Wanless Beck substation, which will also include a battery and solar farm, which will be South West of the current Creyke Beck substation. Are Ørsted frightened of opposition from the Nimbies to their plans?
- I also wonder if political uncertainty in the UK, and the possibility of a Reform UK government, led by Nigel Farage is worrying companies like Ørsted.
So will factors like these prompt companies like Ørsted to move investment to countries, where they welcome wind turbines like Denmark, Germany and The Netherlands.
Could Ørsted Be Looking At An Alternative?
This is a map of wind farms in the North Sea in the Dogger Bank and Hornsea wind farms, that I clipped from Wikipedia..
These are the Dogger Bank and Hornsea wind farms and their developers and size
- 37 – Dogger Bank A – SSE Renewables/Equinor – 1,235 MW
- 39 – Dogger Bank B – SSE Renewables/Equinor – 1,235 MW
- 38 – Dogger Bank C – SSE Renewables/Equinor – 1,218 MW
- 40 – Sofia – RWE – 1,400 MW
- 1 – Hornsea 1 – Ørsted/Global Infrstructure Partners – 1,218 MW
- 32 – Hornsea 2 – Ørsted/Global Infrstructure Partners – 1,386 MW
- 47 – Hornsea 3 – Ørsted – 2,852 MW
- 51 – Hornsea 4 – Ørsted – 2,400 MW
Note.
- That is a total of 12, 944 MW, which is probably enough electricity to power all of England and a large part of Wales.
- Wikipedia’s List of offshore wind farms in the United Kingdom, also lists a 3,000 MW wind farm, that is being developed by German company ; RWE called Dogger Bank South,
- The Dogger Bank South wind farm is not shown on the map, but would surely be South of wind farms 37 to 40 and East of 51.
- The Dogger Bank South wind farm will raise the total of electricity in the Dogger Bank and Hornsea wind farms to just short of 16 GW.
Connecting 16 GW of new electricity into the grid, carrying it away to where it is needed and backing it up, so that power is provided, when the wind doesn’t blow, will not be a nightmare, it will be impossible.
An alternative plan is needed!
AquaVentus To The Rescue!
AquaVentus is a German plan to bring 10 GW of green hydrogen to the German mainland from the North Sea, so they can decarbonise German industry and retire their coal-fired power stations.
- I introduce AquaVentus in AquaVentus, which I suggest you read.
- AquaVentus is being developed by RWE.
- AquaVentus connects to a German hydrogen network called H2ercules to actually distribute the hydrogen.
This video shows the structure of AquaVentus.
I clipped this map from the video.
Note.
- The thick white line running North-West/South-East is the spine of AquaVentus, that will deliver hydrogen to Germany.
- There is a link to Esbjerg in Denmark, that is marked DK.
- There appears to be an undeveloped link to Norway, which goes North,
- There appears to be an undeveloped link to Peterhead in Scotland, that is marked UK.
- There appears to be a link to just North of the Humber in England, that is marked UK.
- Just North of the Humber are the two massive gas storage sites of Aldbrough owned by SSE and Brough owned by Centrica.
- Aldbrough and Rough gas storage sites are being converted into two of the largest hydrogen storage sites in the world!
- There appear to be small ships sailing up and down the East Coast of the UK. Are these small coastal tankers, that are distributing the hydrogen to where it is needed?
When it is completed, AquaVentus will be a very comprehensive hydrogen network.
I believe that offshore electrolysers could be built in the area of the Hornsea 4 and Dogger Bank South wind farms and the hydrogen generated would be taken by AquaVentus to either Germany or the UK.
- Both countries get the hydrogen they need.
- Excess hydrogen would be stored in Aldbrough and Rough.
- British Steel gets decarbonised.
- A 1.8 GW hydrogen-fired powerstation at Keadby gets the hydrogen it needs to backup the wind farms.
Germany and the UK get security in the supply of hydrogen.
These may be my best guesses, but they are based on published plans.
Doncaster-Sheffield Airport And Hydrogen
I believe that the airport of the future will need a lot of hydrogen.
I am probably more optimistic than most, that we will see hydrogen-powered aircraft by around 2035, as my calculations say it is probably the only way to move a hundred people by air at a time, without using fossil fuels.
Airports also have a large number of larger vehicles, that will I believe be ideal for hydrogen power.
Hydrogen buses and coaches will be more common, than they are now.
Heavy goods vehicles are likely to turn to hydrogen power.
Humberside has a large hydrogen network, which is fed by two massive hydrogen stores at AldBrough and Brough.
I suspect that Nimbys will object to hydrogen around airports on safety grounds.
But Doncaster Sheffield Airport could be an ideal location for an airport for hydrogen-powered aircraft.
Backing Up The Wind With The Keadby Power Stations
I went to Cleethorpes from Doncaster by train yesterday. You pass the Keadby site, where there are two large gas–fired power stations of 734 MW and 710 MW. A third one ; Keadby 3 of 910 MW complete with carbon capture and storage should join them by 2027.
So that will be nearly 2.5 GW of reliable electricity.
I find it interesting that one of our first gas-fired power stations with carbon capture will be in Lincolnshire, which is famous for growing plants of all shapes, types and sizes. So will we be seeing lots of greenhouses on the flat lands I saw yesterday, growing plants in an atmosphere they like, so that we can generate our carbon dioxide and eat it.
The next power station at Keadby is called the Keadby Next Generation power station, which is intended to be complete by 2030. It is a bit of a puzzle in that it will run on up to 1800 MW of hydrogen and only produce up to 910 MW of electricity.
Note.
- The hydrogen will come from SSE’s hydrogen store at Aldbrough and Centrica’s store at Rough.
- Surely, the amount of hydrogen and electricity should balance.
When I worked in ICI’s hydrogen plant in the 1960s, ICI had no use for the hydrogen, so they sent it to their power station, blended it with coal gas and used it to make steam for other processes.
Could Keadby Next Generation power station be providing zero-carbon steam for the chemical and other processes on Humberside?
Adding the 910 MW of electricity to Keadby’s gas-fired total of 2.5 GW gives 3.4 GW of electricity from Keadby to back up the wind farms.
3.4 GW at Keadby is what I call backup!
It also should be noted, that one of the reasons for building the Mersey Tidal Barrage is to provide backup for all the wind farms in Liverpool Bay.
Conclusion
I believe that SSE could be supplying zero-carbon steam in addition to electricity from the Keadby Hydrogen power station.
From Doncaster To Cleethorpes
These pictures were taken on my journey between Doncaster and Cleethorpes.
The area is best summed up as flat and decorated with these features.
- A few hedges.
- Some trees and some woodland.
- dozens of wind turbines.
- Lots of pylons carrying electricity.
- Scunthorpe steelworks
- A few stations and railway sidings.
- A couple of waterways.
- Estates of new housing as you approach Grimsby.
When I returned there was more of the same on the other side of the tracks.
With the addition of all the power stations at Keadby and a couple of wind farms.
These are my thoughts on how this landscape will look at some time after 2030.
More Onshore Wind Farms
There will be a lot more wind farms lining the Doncaster and Cleethorpes railway.
The government has said it might pay for turbines and transmission lines to spoil views.
I feel they will have to, to meet their net-zero targets.
There Will Be Massive Hydrogen Storage On The Other Side Of The Humber
SSE are developing Albrough and Centrica are developing Rough into two of the largest hydrogen stores in the world.
The wind farms of the North Sea will provide them with hydrogen.
More Housing
If the government has its wish there will be a lot more new housing.
And as the newer houses show in my pictures, many of them will have solar panels.
More Power Stations At Keadby
Consider.
- The main purpose of the power stations at Keadby will be to provide backup to the wind and solar power in the area and far out to sea.
- The power stations will use hydrogen stored at Albrough and Rough.
- Some of the gas-fired power stations at Keadby will be fitted with carbon capture.
- One hydrogen-fired power station is already being planned.
The power stations at Keadby will probably be capable of supplying several GW of zero-carbon energy.
There Will Be Energy-Hungry Industries Along The South Bank Of The Humber
Just as in the Victorian era, coal attracted steel-making, chemicals and refining to the area, a South Humberside with large amounts of energy will attract heavy industry again.
Already, Siemens have built a train factory at Goole.
There Will Also Be Large Greenhouses In Lincolnshire
Greenhouses are a wonderful green way of absorbing waste heat and carbon dioxide.
Where Have I Seen This Blend Of Offshore Energy, Hydrogen, Heavy Industry And Agriculture Before?
After I visited Eemshaven in the Northern Netherlands, I wrote The Dutch Plan For Hydrogen.
We are not doing something similar, but something much bigger, based on the hydrogen stores at Aldbrough and Brough, the massive offshore wind farms and Lincolnshire’s traditional heavy industry and agriculture.
The Railway Between Doncaster and Cleethorpes Will Be Developed
Just as the Dutch have developed the railways between Groningen and Eemshaven.
The Future Of Drax Power Station
Drax power station is not liked by a lot of environmentalists.
I have been thinking about the future of the power station and the public company that owns it.
Drax power station has a nameplate capacity of around 2.5 GW running on biomass.
It also will be the Southern end of EGL2, which will be an undersea electricity 2 GW superhighway distributing Scottish wind power from Peterhead in Scotland. So the dreaded biomass hated by certain groups will be relegated from the Premier League of electricity generation and replaced by Scottish wind.
As reported in various publications, Drax has signed a deal in the US, so that the biomass can be used for the production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF)
To my mind, the Drax site could be an ideal one for one or more small modular nuclear reactors.
- The large Drax site has been producing electricity for 52 years.
- In 1986, the site produced nearly 4 GW of electricity.
- I would suspect that the substations on the site could be enlarged to distribute 4 GW of electricity.
- EGL2 will bring in 2 GW of Scottish wind-generated electricity.
- The site has excellent rail connections.
- The site has twelve cooling towers and is encircled by the River Ouse.
- Could all this water be used for cooling the small modular nuclear reactors.
I believe that perhaps three small modular nuclear reactors could be built on the Drax site to backup EGL2 and bring a reliable source of sustainable power to Yorkshire.
Drax is also only about forty miles from the vast hydrogen stores at Aldbrough and Rough, so if Drax needed, if could use excess electricity to create hydrogen for storage.
SSE is consulting on a 1+ GW hydrogen power station at Keadby, so perhaps Drax should have a similar hydrogen power station on its site?
I’ve Just Come Across Avnos
I feel we should take into account any possibilities of second use of oil or gas structures, that once held hydrocarbons.
An article in a magazine called Carbon Herald pointed me to a company called Avnos, who are developing Direct Air Capture of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. If systems like that of Avnos do work, we may need somewhere to put the carbon dioxide.
Centrica are storing the hydrogen in the Rough gas field, which was previously used for storing natural gas and now some depleted gas fields are being used to store captured carbon dioxide.
On the subject of carbon capture, Avnos do it differently, in that for every tonne of CO2, they capture from the air, they capture five tonnes of distilled water. And they do it without using any heat.
This is their web site.
This is their mission statement on the front page of the web site. There is also a video.
Carbon Negative. Water Positive
Avnos is commercializing the most advanced technology in the Direct Air Capture of CO2
Our proprietary Hybrid Direct Air Capture (HDAC) solution inverts the water paradigm in DAC, producing water, eliminating heat consumption and reducing costs compared to other forms of DAC.
It sounds too good to be true!
But I have experience of the positive financial results of fluid dynamics in this area.
Thirty years ago, two guys approached me with an idea for an aerosol valve that used nitrogen as a propellant.
At the time, I lived in the house, where Osborne Reynolds, the great Victorian fluid dynamicist of Reynold’s number fame had been brought up.
The guys succeeded and the device was sold on to J & J.
They were then asked to develop a metered dose inhaler for asthma drugs, which is now sold as Respimat, which is sold by Boehringer Ingelheim.
Afterwards, I researched Reynolds at Manchester University, where he was the first Professor of Engineering and I found that he had done some marvelous things with fluids. He was a true genius and undergraduates are still taught on his Victorian apparatus.
I suspect that Avnos may have been exploring in the same area and are using another of Reynold’s useful properties.
Large Scale Hydrogen Storage Sites Could Reduce Customer Energy Costs By £1bn Per Year
The title of this post, is the same as this press release from Centrica.
These four paragraphs summarise the report.
Centrica and FTI report finds that hydrogen storage would help balance the UK’s energy system and reduce bills.
A net zero scenario including large scale hydrogen storage – specifically, a redeveloped Rough gas storage facility – would reduce energy costs by an additional £1bn per year by 2050.
Report also finds that a UK energy system focused on renewable generation risks high levels of intermittency without an established hydrogen market. By 2050, electricity generation from renewables could exceed total demand around 15% of the time.
Electricity generation from renewables could also rise or fall by as much as 100GW over the course of a single day. More than twice current levels of peak demand on winter evenings and the equivalent energy output from over 30 Hinkley Point C nuclear power stations.
Note.
- Hydrogen Central entitles their article about the Centrica press release Centrica Says Hydrogen Can Reduce Household Bills by £35 a Year. That’s almost a bottle of my favourite Adnams beer a week!
- I talked about the redevelopment of the Rough facility into hydrogen storage in Aberdeen’s Exceed Secures Centrica Rough Contract.
- Generating hydrogen from excess electricity and storing it until it is needed, must be an efficient way of storing electricity or powering industrial processes that need a lot of energy, if storing hydrogen makes £1bn per year!
- It should be noted that Centrica have a large interest in HiiROC, who are developing an efficient way to generate hydrogen from any hydrocarbon gas from chemical plant off-gas through biomethane to natural gas. In a perfect world a HiiROC system in a sewage works could capture the biomethane and split it into hydrogen and carbon black. The hydrogen could be used to refuel vehicles and the carbon black would be taken away to someone, who has need of it.
In some ways, it is surely sensible to have enough energy in a store, if the renewables fail. As Rough is already there and functioning, it is surely one of the easiest routes to redevelop Rough, so that it is in top-quality condition.
It should also be noted, that Rough is not far from the Aldbrough Gas Storage, which SSE are converting to a second massive hydrogen store.
So Humberside will have two of the largest hydrogen stores in the world, which Centrica and SSE will use to maxise energy security in the wider Humberside and East Yorkshire area, and I suspect to maximise their profits as well.
This video shows the structure of AquaVentus, which is a pipeline system, that the Germans are building to bring much-needed hydrogen to German industry from electrolysers in the North Sea and other countries like Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands and the UK.
I clipped this map from the video.
Note how a branch of AquaVentus makes landfall around the Humber estuary at a UK label.
Will Centrica and SSE be trading hydrogen from Rough and Aldbrough with the Germans through AquaVentus? You bet they will, as the Germans are short of both hydrogen and hydrogen storage.
Aberdeen’s Exceed Secures Centrica Rough Contract
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Energy Voice.
This is the sub-heading.
Well and reservoir management firm Exceed has secured a contract with Centrica Energy Storage for the redevelopment of the Rough gas storage field.
This is the introductory paragraph.
Exceed said its role in the initial stages of the project, which is exploring converting the Rough field into a hydrogen storage facility, could create more than 30 jobs.
In Wood To Optimise Hydrogen Storage For Centrica’s Rough Field, I talked about changing Rough from a gas to a hydrogen store, so it looks like Centrica are going to create a vast hydrogen storage facility.
This all fits with my belief, that Centrica’s Rough facility and SSE’s nearby Aldbrough storage facility, will at sometime in the future be connected to the Germany hydrogen pipeline; AquaVentus to perform backup to hydrogen produced in the North Sea.
I also feel that the hydrogen trading will be of benefit to Centrica and SSE.
The last section of the Energy Voice article is entitled Rough Hydrogen Storage Concerns.
The following facts are given.
There are currently eight geological gas storage sites across Great Britain, containing approximately 3.1bcm in capacity and maximum deliverability rates of 124mcm/day.
Five of these gas storage sites are in salt caverns while the remaining three are depleted oil and gas fields, with the Centrica’s Rough field in the North Sea the only site located offshore.
The British Geological Survey estimates the UK could store up to 3,000 TWh of hydrogen.
Currently, we use the following energy in a year.
- 263 TWh of electricity
- 705 TWh of natural gas
So we use a total of 968 TWh of energy.
3,000 TWh of hydrogen would keep the UK going for three years. So we should be fine!
