The two companies are also to build a gas-fired power station where carbon capture technology is to be used. The carbon dioxide produced by burning gas will be captured and stored under the seabed in the southern part of the North Sea.
The Keady plant will produce 900 MW of power and allow a reduction in emissions of greenhouse gases in Humber region in the northeast of England, Britain’s largest and most carbon-intensive industrial cluster. In total, the Keadby Hydrogen project will have a capacity of 1.8 GW and may be brought on stream at the end of the decade.
Company representatives said the reason for building power stations with different technologies was to test different low-carbon approaches in producing electricity.
A significant part of hydrogen production in the world comes from the process of the reforming of natural gas. But this process also results in greenhouse gas emissions – the reason for the use of hydrogen capture.
Britain has announced plans to reduce industrial emissions by two-thirds over 15 years through the use of carbon and hydrogen capture. BP has said it will build by 2030 the country’s largest hydrogen facility—a plant in Teesside with a capacity of 1 GW—one fifth of the hydrogen to be produced on the country over 10 years. Plans call for production of “blue” hydrogen, turning natural gas into hydrogen.
