As part of its Cluster Sequencing Process, the Government has shortlisted 15 projects from across the East Coast Cluster to negotiations.

That includes two projects from Zero Carbon Humber companies, both of which could play a key role in making the Humber the world’s first net zero industrial region by 2040.

Last year, the East Coast Cluster – a collaboration between Zero Carbon Humber, Net Zero Teesside and the Northern Endurance Partnership – was named as one of the UK’s first two industrial clusters to be decarbonized through carbon capture and storage technology.

The announcement this week represents a major milestone in efforts to deploy carbon capture and hydrogen infrastructure across the Humber, with the projects taken forward set to be among the first to be connected to the shared infrastructure and positioned to negotiate with Government on business model funding.

The selected projects will now proceed to the due diligence stage of the Phase-2 cluster sequencing process to allow them to connect to the East Coast Cluster’s CO2 infrastructure and be operational in the mid-2020s. 

Projects taken forward to negotiations include:

• H2H Saltend – Led by Equinor, this 600 MW low carbon hydrogen production facility will ‘kick-start’ wider Humber decarbonisation by first reducing emissions at Saltend Chemicals Park, one of the region’s most carbon intensive sites. By fuel switching the on-site power station from natural gas to hydrogen and also providing hydrogen to multiple other offtakers for use in their processes and products, the project could reduce the Park’s emissions by around one million tonnes – around a third of its current total.
• Keadby 3 Carbon Capture Power Station – Led by SSE Thermal and Equinor, a new highly-efficient power station which could become the UK’s first equipped with carbon capture technology. With the potential to capture more than 30 million tonnes of CO2 across its lifetime, it is an ideal project to support the UK’s transition to net zero and deliver a secure, decarbonised power system by 2035, and back up renewable generation.

The Government is also due to provide further details in the coming weeks on the evaluation and selection process it intends to run for greenhouse gas removal (GGR) technologies such as the bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) project at Drax Power Station.

Read the government's full announcement here.