Shell Blue Hydrogen Process wins Humber H2ub® process design package contract
The international energy company Uniper, and Shell UK Limited (Shell UK), have awarded Shell Catalysts & Technologies a contract to deliver a process design package for the Humber H2ub® project, using the Shell Blue Hydrogen Process (SBHP).
By Shell Catalysts & Technologies
February 2023, London, UK: The international energy company Uniper, and Shell UK Limited (Shell UK), have awarded Shell Catalysts & Technologies a contract to deliver a process design package for the Humber H2ub® project, using the Shell Blue Hydrogen Process (SBHP). The deal, which was awarded following a formal selection process, could see the technology deployed at Uniper and Shell UK’s proposed project in the Humber, UK, which aims to produce low-carbon hydrogen that could be used to decarbonise industry, transport and power throughout the region.
Two other companies are also working on plant design proposals for the project, and the one that is selected will become the Humber H2ub® project’s preferred low-carbon hydrogen production technology provider. That company will also support the project’s FEED and EPC stages, ahead of the financial investment decision (FID) which is expected by around 2025.
The proposals involve building a blue hydrogen production unit at Uniper’s Killingholme, UK, site, capable of generating 720MW of low-carbon hydrogen from natural gas (enough to heat more than half a million homes a year*). The carbon dioxide produced as a result of this process, estimated to be 1.6 million t/y, would be captured and stored permanently in a geological formation in the North Sea. This project could potentially contribute towards the UK government’s target to capture and store 20–30 million t/y of carbon by 2030 and to produce up to 10 GW of low carbon hydrogen.
Nick Flinn, Vice President, Decarbonisation Technologies, Shell Catalysts & Technologies, said: “Momentum is building for low-carbon hydrogen and also for the SBHP, which has recently been selected for a number of other Shell projects.
“Before we developed the SBHP in 2020, blue hydrogen projects only had steam methane reforming (SMR) or autothermal reforming (ATR) to select from. Now, the SBHP provides a third option. It uses Shell gas partial oxidation (SGP) technology and, in comparison with SMR and ATR, it captures carbon dioxide at higher pressures and at larger scales, which results in a lower levellised cost of hydrogen. With these advantages I believe we will develop a highly competitive process design package for the Humber H2ub®.”
Guy Phillips, Uniper Team Lead Business Development Hydrogen UK, said: “The award of process design package contracts represents a significant step towards our plans for low-carbon hydrogen production at Killingholme. This will help to decarbonise the UK’s largest carbon dioxide emitting industrial region. Hydrogen will be one of the solutions to achieve the UK’s target of becoming carbon neutral by 2050, and the Humber region and this project, will contribute to achieving it.”
The selection process involved Uniper and Shell UK sending a request for information in 2021 to a long list of technology companies. Based on this, they submitted requests for proposal documents which asked seven contractors to propose solutions for a final bid. Bidders had to submit costs, preliminary designs and bid concepts for the project team who were then able to select the contractors to carry out the full process design for the design competition.
*The project will be focusing on potential industrial uses of the hydrogen but, to give a sense of scale, production of 720 megawatts would be enough low-carbon hydrogen to heat more than half a million homes a year.
For further details, please contact:
For Shell Catalysts & Technologies:
Laura van Lingen
Shell Media Relations
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Email: laura.vanlingen@shell.com
About the SBHP
The SBHP offers significant advantages over alternative technologies, which include SMR and ATR.
For example, compared with SMR, it saves money by maximising carbon-capture efficiency and simplifying the process line-up, which offsets the oxygen production costs.
And, compared with ATR, it has a simpler line-up, with no need for substantial feed gas pretreatment, and does not require a fired heater that emits carbon dioxide. It also generates, rather than consumes, steam to satisfy the demands of the process.
These benefits translate to a lower levellised cost of hydrogen and lower carbon intensity for SGP technology compared with ATR, and even greater benefits when compared with SMR.
It integrates two proven technologies: ADIP ULTRA and SGP. ADIP ULTRA is a proven solvent technology for capturing carbon dioxide from high-pressure process streams, whereas SGP is an oxygen-based system with direct firing in a refractory-lined reactor. It requires little or no feed-gas pretreatment, is a non-catalytic process that produces high-pressure steam from waste heat rather than consuming it and has no direct carbon dioxide emissions. SGP has more than 30 active gas and residue gasification licensees, and there are more than 100 SGP gasifiers worldwide.
About Shell Catalysts & Technologies
Shell Catalysts & Technologies exists to provide Shell and non-Shell businesses with the tools, technologies and insights that are needed to navigate the energy transition.
We are pushing boundaries in the energy transition space. For decades, we have been developing game-changing technological innovations to solve seemingly insurmountable challenges. Now we have, or are developing, a wide range of differentiated solutions that offer attractive decarbonisation opportunities, including biofuels, carbon capture and blue hydrogen technologies.
What sets us apart is the knowledge we have gained from Shell’s corporate heritage as the operator of refineries and petrochemical plants around the world. It also gives us a unique perspective on how refiners can remain competitive.
Our world-class catalyst and research and development expertise has enabled us to establish an enviable track record for developing leading-edge zeolites and catalysts, advanced solvents and pioneering processes, and provides a strong foundation for our future technology development.
For more information, visit www.shell.com/ct.
About Uniper
Düsseldorf-based Uniper is an international energy company with activities in more than 40 countries. With around 7,000 employees, it makes an important contribution to security of supply in Europe. Uniper’s core businesses are power generation in Europe, global energy trading, and a broad gas portfolio.
Uniper procures gas – including liquefied natural gas – and other energy sources on global markets. The company owns and operates gas storage facilities with a capacity of more than 7 billion cubic meters. Uniper plans for its 22.5 GW of installed power-generating capacity in Europe to be carbon-neutral by 2035. The company already ranks among Europe’s largest operators of hydroelectric plants and intends to further expand solar and wind energy, which are essential for a more sustainable and autonomous future.
Uniper is a reliable partner for communities, municipal utilities, and industrial enterprises for planning and implementing innovative, lower-carbon solutions on their decarbonization journey. Uniper is a hydrogen pioneer, is active worldwide along the entire hydrogen value chain, and is conducting projects to make hydrogen a mainstay of the energy supply.
About Uniper UK
In the UK, Uniper owns and operates a flexible generation portfolio of seven power stations, a fast-cycle gas storage facility and two high pressure gas pipelines, from Theddlethorpe to Killingholme and from Blyborough to Cottam. We also have significant long-term regasification capacity at the Grain LNG terminal in Kent, to convert LNG back to natural gas.
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