Supporters back Humber Zero
19 Mar 2021
Martin Vickers MP, Member of Parliament for Cleethorpes, said:
“Humber Zero is a vitally important initiative that promises great benefits to my constituency and the wider area. It is a significant part of the UK commitment to reach its ambitious emission reduction targets whilst at the same time providing well-paid jobs for local people.
“That major companies such as VPI and Phillips 66 are leading the project is an indication of the level of support.”
Jonathan Oxley, Humber Cluster Plan Manager, Humber LEP, said:
“The Humber is the largest industrial cluster in the UK, and represents a significant opportunity to advance the UK’s Net Zero ambition. Working with our partners across the Humber region to develop the Humber Cluster Plan, we will deliver this dynamic roadmap to decarbonise existing industries and attract new businesses to the area.
“Humber Zero’s capacity to capture 8 million tonnes of C02 per year, (the equivalent of removing around 4 million cars from UK roads), is a significant project to put the UK’s energy estuary at the heart of the transition to a more sustainable industrial future.”
Leader of North Lincolnshire Council Cllr Rob Waltham MBE said:
“North Lincolnshire has a fabulous opportunity to lead the world in carbon capture and storage technology.
“I understand Humber Zero will create 2,500 construction jobs and 200 permanent ones, creating significant investment in the local economy.
“The project will also help protect thousands of industrial jobs in North Lincolnshire that would otherwise be at risk.
“North Lincolnshire Council is determined to play its part in helping the Government meet its 2050 net zero ambition while looking after residents’ interests.
“I support the efforts of those behind Humber Zero.”
Leader of North East Lincolnshire Council Leader, Cllr Philip Jackson, said:
“The Green Industrial Revolution is happening right here, right now. The Government’s recently published 10 point plan looks to bring together technologies such as offshore wind, hydrogen production and carbon capture in areas which will become “super places” in which green industries prosper.
“It’s those green industries that will help to provide long-term jobs in our area in both offshore wind and on-shore waste to energy industries.
“All of this doesn’t happen overnight – it’s through working with businesses over a number of years, and investing in the long-term, that we can make a difference and benefit in terms of jobs and the economy in North East Lincolnshire.”
Chief Executive of the Greater Lincolnshire Local Enterprise Partnership Ruth Carver, said:
“The LEP’s ambition is to pioneer whole-system and place-based approaches to dealing with energy and decarbonisation, both industrial and rural, while delivering valuable outcome-based impacts, thus creating an exemplar for other areas.
“Supporting the decarbonisation route map for the Humber estuary industrial cluster is vital to this ambition. Following the very good news that significant Government investment has been made to Humber Zero, this is a great start in facilitating delivery at a local infrastructure level that is clearly aligned with the Government’s objectives for the 10-point plan for a Green Industrial Revolution.
“We look forward to working with all of the partners.”
Prof Jon Gibbins, Professor of CCS at the University of Sheffield and Director of the UK’s CCS Research Centre, said:
“The range of CCS and hydrogen options, mostly for retrofit, in the Humber Zero cluster make it very interesting from a technology and science perspective.
“Engagement so far with the Humber Zero team, through UK CCS Research workshops on post-combustion capture and participation in the preliminary technical studies, has been very productive, both for discussing academic research results with industrial partners and, more importantly, for giving insights into the diverse range of inputs for CCS knowledge development that the new UK CCS projects, such as Humber Zero, will offer.
“The University of Sheffield and the UKCCSRC welcome Humber Zero’s success in receiving funding for Phase 2 of the Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge and look forward to seeing how the research community can best interact with the exciting work that will now be taking place to develop these synergistic projects at one of the key locations for large scale CCS in the UK.”
Tim Abbott, Senior Study Manager, from energy services firm Wood, said:
“It is exciting to be working at the forefront of the emerging CCS and hydrogen economies, with partners who are fully engaged and have real ambition to decarbonise their assets.
“This project has a place for a wealth of technologies to come together and meet the challenge, with commercialisation of green hydrogen electrolysers, deployment of blue hydrogen at scale, and post-combustion CO2 capture on large emitters.
“A unique feature of this scheme is the existing baseload CHP plant at VPI-Immingham, and the opportunity that creates to further integrate the sites to maximise the overall benefit.”
Paul Fennell and Nixon Sunny, of Imperial College London, working on the project, independently, through Imperial Consultants. Paul said:
“This was an exciting opportunity to put our research skills into practical application, investigating the costs of green hydrogen from local curtailed wind, and also how a CCS network would potentially evolve in the Humber Area.
“The resulting evidence base has been shared widely with policymakers to support policy and regulatory alignment towards net-zero.
“We hope to continue collaborating in this exciting project as it moves into reality.”
David Talbot, CEO of skills centre CATCH UK at nearby Stallingborough, said:
“We believe Humber Zero offers an excellent opportunity to deliver early CCS deployment in the UK, capturing an initial 4.9 million tonnes of industrial CO2 emissions per annum.
“The adjacency of two world scale plants, owned by Phillips 66 and Vitol, can result in a scale of CO2 reduction that is nationally significant, while offering a highly competitive levelised cost of abatement.
“The Humber Industrial Cluster plan and CATCH is committed to supporting a range of deployment projects in our region and looks forward to working with Humber Zero to support its ambition that the Humber Refinery and Immingham CHP present an exciting opportunity for Government to become a global leader in industrial heat and power decarbonisation and deliver the world’s first ‘refinery of the future’.
Dr Ian Kelly, Chief Executive of Hull and Humber Chamber of Commerce, said:
“The Hull and Humber Chamber of Commerce fully supports the ambitions of businesses around the Humber to reduce the region’s carbon footprint and make our area cleaner and safer for everyone living and working in this industrial region.
“Humber Zero’s ambitions will help that agenda, and hopefully create more jobs along the way, which, as our local economy continues to get to grips with Covid-19 and the Brexit challenges, can only be welcomed.
“We look forward to working with all the key stakeholders in the Humber to realise these ambitions in the coming years.”