Kent, as part of a consortium with Essar, Progressive Energy and Johnson Matthey, has delivered a Front End Engineering Design (FEED) for a Low Carbon Hydrogen Plant to be located on Essar's Stanlow Refinery.

HyNet is the UK’s leading decarbonisation cluster comprising of blue hydrogen production, carbon capture and storage, and large scale fuel switching to decarbonise existing industrial facilities.

The initial phase of HyNet North West will reduce CO2 emissions by over 1Mtpa through the construction of the UK’s first low-carbon hydrogen plant to produce 3TWh per year of low carbon hydrogen. The programme includes repurposing existing natural gas

pipelines for CO2 and transportation, storage in depleted gas reservoirs under the seabed in Liverpool Bay and building the UK’s first hydrogen pipeline network to supply to local industry and to blend hydrogen with natural gas into local networks.

Kent's scope includes:

• Concept and technology selection, pre-FEED, site selection, and FEED for the Low Carbon Hydrogen facility and associated carbon capture unit

• Conceptual design and cost estimates for Refinery and Fertilizer carbon capture and CO2 transportation

• Preparation of the documentation for planning application, consenting and permitting including safety engineering study work and design assurance

Proven expertise with hydrogen and carbon capture with a technology-neutral stance enables Kent to select the best technical solution for the clients without biases.

Kent has the ability to partner with clients from the very earliest from the earliest phase of an idea, develop feasibility, select the concept and support through delivery whilst providing a competitive cost model, balancing deep industry experts located in the region with support from cost-effective design through Kent's India engineering hub.

Kent and the consortium partners were recognised in the 2021 IChemE Global Awards as a leading Highly Commended project on the global stage.

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"A project design that's both well developed and deployable around the world."

Matthew Wills, Kent's Project Manager, HyNet Hydrogen Production Plant

HyNet North West is a significant clean growth opportunity for the UK. It is a low cost, deliverable project which meets the major challenges of reducing carbon emissions from industry, domestic heat and transport. HyNet is based on the production of hydrogen from natural gas. It includes the development of a new hydrogen pipeline; and the creation of Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and Storage (CCUS) infrastructure. CCUS is a vital technology to achieve the widespread emissions savings needed to meet the 2050 carbon reduction targets.

HyNet is a complete system of hydrogen production, hydrogen supply, hydrogen utilisation, carbon capture, transportation, and carbon sequestration located in a concentration of industry, existing technical skill base, and suitable geology. The close proximity of hydrogen production, utilisation, and carbon sequestration means that the HyNet system offers lower capital cost and development risk compared to other potential clusters around the world.

The project uses Johnson Matthey Low Carbon Hydrogen (LCH™) Technology.

The LCH flowsheet recovers heat at maximum exergy (ie the highest possible quality) which offers efficiency benefits by coupling a gas heated reformer (GHR) with an autothermal reformer (ATR). The main difference between the LCH and Steam Methane Reforming (SMR) flowsheets is that the energy to drive the reaction is provided by introducing oxygen to the ATR as opposed to burning natural gas in the SMR.

At the scales envisaged, this oxygen would come from an air separation unit. ATRs are already used in the production of syngas and are part of most modern schemes for production of methanol and liquid fuels from Fischer- Tropsch processes. These plants are very large and demonstrate that the technology is capable of producing hydrogen at large scale and therefore the scale-up risk is minimised