NEWS that the North of England is at the forefront of net zero carbon ambitions for the UK energy sector has been welcomed by industry specialists at Russell Taylor Group.

Already, the multi-million pound HyNet North West energy project will in three years’ time see low carbon hydrogen piped into the gas grid from the world’s first Low Carbon Hydrogen Plant at Essar Oil’s Stanlow refinery in Ellesmere Port. When fully operational, the plant will supply industries and transport across the region, capturing the equivalent of taking 250,000 cars off the road.

Now energy company Uniper has just announced it has signed an agreement with Shell to also produce blue hydrogen at its Killingholme power station in Lincolnshire which could be used to decarbonise industry, transport and power throughout the Humber region.

Production could result in the capture of around 1.6 million metric tonnes of carbon a year through carbon capture and storage, massively contributing to the government’s objective to capture 10 million metric tonnes of carbon a year by 2030.

Russell Taylor Group’s Technical and Engineering operations manager Steve McCarthy, operating in partnership with Essar and the HyNet project to source technical and engineering roles at the Stanlow site, sees this latest move as another step towards achievement of the climate change target for all electricity to come from clean sources by 2035.

He said: “Stanlow is earmarked to become the country’s first refinery capable of running totally on hydrogen fuel source, a £45 million venture helping to create sustainable solutions for the future and certain to give a huge boost to technical and engineering jobs in the region.

“Now comes the news of this latest investment in hydrogen production at Killingholme to decarbonise heavy industry, transport, heating and power, another North of England site becoming a trailblazer for the UK’s transition to a low carbon economy.

“It’s great to see more carbon capture projects coming to fruition to help achieve the UK’s net zero ambitions as well as contributing to the economic growth of the Humber region.”