GHD supporting landmark low carbon hydrogen project
At a glance
GHD is supporting a ground-breaking hydrogen project led by HyNet consortium in the north west of England. Energy use in industry is one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions, with over 100 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent emitted from the UK’s industry each year. The reduction of such emissions is one of the biggest challenges we face in the decarbonisation of our economy and is vitally important in the fight against climate change.
The challenge
In alignment with GHD’s global future energy strategy to help guide clients through the important transition to affordable, reliable, decarbonised energy, we are providing engineering design for a pioneering project to conduct a live demonstration of using hydrogen as a fuel for industrial process heat.
Funded by the UK Government’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) under its Industrial Fuel Switching Competition, this project forms part of the wider ‘HyNet’ initiative, which is a programme co-ordinated by Progressive Energy and involving a range of industrial and academic stakeholders, including the Essar refinery in Stanlow, the Unilever site at Port Sunlight and the Pilkington glass factoring in St Helens, all in the north west of England. HyNet aims to develop the UK’s first net-zero hydrogen cluster, and is driving forward many elements of the hydrogen supply chain from production (alongside carbon capture and storage) to distribution, and end-use, making an important contribution in helping the UK to reach its goal of being carbon-neutral by 2050
Our response
The impact
Upon successful completion of the project we will be able to demonstrate that hydrogen can be used as a substitute fuel for natural gas in the industrial process, helping our client transition to a low carbon future and leading the way for others to follow.
"We are delighted to have been selected to support BEIS, Progressive Energy and their industrial partners with this really important project. The decarbonisation of industrial energy is a vital part of the push to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, and is an important part of GHD’s global Future Energy initiative. Our team is excited to be supporting a successful demonstration of this ground-breaking and important industrial fuel-switch to hydrogen.”