On Tuesday 3^rd June, CATCH hosted our first event of Humber Business Week, our Humber Industrial Decarbonisation Conference at Aura Innovation Centre in Hull, kindly sponsored by the Apprentice Employment Agency & the University of Hull.

Over 60 delegates were welcomed in person by Chair Professor Joe Howe, University of Lincoln, who thanked all in attendance for joining before introducing keynote speaker, Professor Peter Styring, University of Sheffield.

Peter spoke about the importance of understanding the difference between Decarbonisation and Defossilisation. Peter also expressed the importance of industrial cluster collaboration in areas such as the Humber Region, where plans for a CCS pipeline network have been in place since 2013. After discussing the work still needed to reduce power & industrial carbon emissions, Peter put forward that if industry continue to come together, government should soon follow suit.

Working on a simple premise of People, Prosperity and Planet, Peter stated that these three aspects needed to be held in people’s minds as we moved forward. Discussing the “Flue2Chem” project from Innovate UK, Peter demonstrated how a circular economy of carbon capture can lead to new low carbon products being generated.

Ralph Windeatt of ABP and Frederic Sene, Air Products, then gave a joint presentation and insight into Low Carbon Energy Transition in the Humber Industrial Cluster, and how they planned to work with one another to not only import Hydrogen in the form of Ammonia into the UK but also utilise the same shipping and transport infrastructure for Carbon Dioxide in the future.

Ralph explained how ABP were working to ensure the relevant deep-water infrastructure was developed, allowing for the necessary transport and carbon pipelines to be utilised. Ralph also explained that ABP were leading in utilising hydrogen as a power source for their port services equipment, demonstrating that this low carbon fuel is a safe and effective route to decarbonise some of their operations.

Frederic explained how Air Products were also leading the way in the UK, using liquid hydrogen as a fuel source and having the first hydrogen fuelling station in the country. He further explained how Air Products had built the NEOM Green Hydrogen Project in Saudi Arabia, where electrolysis technology was used to produce hydrogen in the form of ammonia from abundant wind and solar energy.  The green ammonia is then transported by ship to users in Northern Europe and the UK, where the ammonia can be dissociated and compressed into hydrogen which could then be used as fuel.

Following a short coffee and networking break, it was the turn of Gavin Rowson, Uniper, to speak to delegates on the Killingholme Low Carbon Power Project. Uniper aim to be a carbon neutral business by 2040 and are working to provide customers across both the UK and Europe with green energy of the future.

While they operate across the world, Gavin explained that Killingholme was the ideal location; a heavy industrial area, multiple transport links by land and sea, as well as two prospective carbon dioxide pipelines in the vicininty: Northern Endurance and Viking CCS. Uniper plan to build a new, dedicated carbon capture power plant, designed to be at 95% capture, while providing at least 470 MW of new power to the energy grid. Uniper are confident this project is highly deliverable and that they are prepared for the project begin, showing how they can help support decarbonisation in the future.

The final speaker of the event was Edward Gill of Exolum. After an introduction about the company to delegates, Edward began by discussing the challenges that had been identified by Exolum, and how this then drove their strategy. Edward described Exolum’s role in enabling the expansion of Sustainable Aviation Fuel in the UK and their aim to become Europe’s leading hydrogen logistics provider for end-to-end logistics service, utilising their existing knowledge and infrastructure.

The event closed with a networking lunch and a chance to meet our exhibitors.  The next Humber Industrial Decarbonisation Network will be held on Wednesday 24th September.  For more information please contact katie.hedges@catchuk.org.