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?
HyNet is made up of several different elements. Together, these will provide the infrastructure to produce, transport and store low carbon hydrogen across the North West and North Wales. There will also be the infrastructure to capture, transport and lock away carbon dioxide emissions from industry.
HyNet will both upgrade existing infrastructure, as well as the develop new infrastructure. This includes underground pipelines, hydrogen production plants and storage facilities.
HyNet includes:
- Hydrogen production: EET Hydrogen
- Hydrogen transport network via underground pipeline: Cadent
- Hydrogen storage: INOVYN
- CO2 transport via underground pipeline: Eni
- CO2 undersea storage: Eni
HOW WILL HYDROGEN BE PRODUCED?
Hydrogen will be manufactured in the North West at the Stanlow Manufacturing Complex by EET Hydrogen. The low carbon hydrogen production plant, will supply local industry with locally produced hydrogen. As production increases, the network of industries supplied will expand.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
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. HyNet partners 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.
HOW WILL HYNET HELP INDUSTRY DECARBONISE?
We have over 40 organisations signed up to decarbonise through HyNet. Industry which can switch from the fossil fuels they currently use to a low carbon alternative – hydrogen which has been produced in the North West by EET Hydrogen and distributed by Cadent’s pipeline network. We have already run successful demonstrations at Pilkington Glass and Unilever to show how the switch over from natural gas to hydrogen could work.
HyNet partner, Eni is supporting those sectors which are hard to decarbonise. 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.
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.
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.