Equinor has selected three consortia who will compete to provide design proposals for its 600MW H2H Saltend hydrogen production plant. The three consortia – KBR & Tecnimont; Technip Energies; and Linde Engineering and BOC UK – were chosen after a 6-month prequalification process. At the end of 2022 the plan is to select one of the consortia to move into the final stage of engineering (FEED) in preparation for a Final Investment decision in later 2023.
The project will produce hydrogen from natural gas in combination with carbon capture and storage.
The study will also be used to support the delivery of a further 1,200MW of low-carbon hydrogen production to be principally used to fuel the Keadby Hydrogen power station, expected to start-up in 2028-29, which will use 100% hydrogen for power generation.
Together thw two projects would have hydrogen production capacity of 1.8 GW – a third of the UK government’s 5GW low carbon hydrogen production goal.
Equinor’s H2H Saltend hydrogen plant and Keadby Hydrogen power station, which is being developed in partnership with SSE Thermal, are Equinor’s first two UK hydrogen projects that support the wider ambition to decarbonise the Humber and develop the UK’s first net-zero industrial cluster by 2040. On 19 October 2021 the East Coast Cluster (ECC) was selected by the UK government’s Cluster Sequencing process as one of the first two Industrial Clusters to be CCUS enabled by the mid-2020s. The ECC will provide the CO2 transport and storage infrastructure required by the Humber hydrogen projects.