We are in the midst of a climate emergency and we need to act quickly. An important action is for us to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide we emit – all the way down to zero.
We need to find ways for people, businesses and industry to decarbonise through clean, affordable and efficient energy options. To enable this, low carbon energy innovation must move fast.
WHAT IS HYNET?
The HyNet network is made up of several key pieces of infrastructure. Together, these will provide the North West and North Wales with low carbon hydrogen and also the opportunity to capture carbon emissions and permanently lock them away.
HyNet includes:
- Hydrogen production: EET Hydrogen
- Hydrogen transport network via underground pipeline: Cadent
- Hydrogen storage: INEOS Inovyn
- CO2 transport & storage: Eni
HyNet will construct new as well as repurpose existing infrastructure. This includes underground pipelines, hydrogen production plants, carbon capture facilities and storage facilities.
THE technology
HyNet will tap into the regions’ industrial experience and scientific expertise, establishing a hotspot for carbon capture and storage and low carbon hydrogen technologies. This will create opportunities for local people to develop new skillsets and work in exciting, world-leading new technologies.
Hydrogen
HyNet will produce hydrogen from natural gas at the new low-carbon hydrogen production plant using established, proven technology. The hydrogen we produce will be used across the region.
Hydrogen is an abundant element. It offers a way to deliver low carbon energy because when it is burned it doesn’t produce CO₂, just water and heat. This makes hydrogen an alternative to fossil fuels.
The hydrogen will be transported by underground pipelines, just as natural gas is today. HyNet’s hydrogen network, being developed by gas supply experts, Cadent, is the first of its kind in the UK.
Hydrogen is able to be stored ready for when we need energy – like a battery. HyNet partners INEOS Inovyn are repurposing salt caverns in the Northwich area of Cheshire, which currently store natural gas, to store 35,000 tonnes hydrogen, providing a secure supply of home-grown energy and enable us to manage peaks and troughs in energy demand.
Carbon capture and storage
In order to begin rapid decarbonisation, HyNet is focused on working quickly to reduce harmful carbon emissions from local industry, and cleaning up air quality in the region using carbon capture and storage (CCS).
CCS is a safe and proven technology that captures carbon dioxide where it is being produced and locks it away, preventing it from being released into the atmosphere, where it is a major contributor to climate change.
We will remove carbon dioxide emissions directly from energy-intensive industries, and from the hydrogen plant, safely transporting via an underground pipeline and storing these emissions in depleted oil and gas reservoirs under the seabed.
Repurposed underground pipes, will transport captured carbon dioxide emitted from major industry across the north west and North Wales, into almost-empty gas fields under the sea in Liverpool Bay to be locked away in perpetuity.