GBP 7.5 million funding secured for phase two of Gigastack, which is to demonstrate low-cost, zero-carbon hydrogen in the UK to industrial scale. Project consortium includes ITM Power, Ørsted, Phillips 66 Limited and Element Energy.
GBP 7.5 million funding has been awarded for the next phase of
Gigastack, a new renewable hydrogen project, as part of the Department
for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Hydrogen Supply
Competition.
The Gigastack project, led by ITM Power, Ørsted, Phillips 66 Limited and
Element Energy, will show how renewable hydrogen derived from offshore
wind can support the UK’s 2050 net-zero greenhouse gas emission target.
Producing hydrogen has traditionally been associated with high carbon
emissions, but by using renewable electricity, e.g. from an offshore
wind farm, the process of producing hydrogen from water (electrolysis)
can be completely decarbonised. Energy-intensive industries and the
transportation sector will have the opportunity to reduce the carbon
intensity of their fuels by using renewable hydrogen.
As part of the initial feasibility phase of the Gigastack project, which
finished in 2019, ITM Power developed designs for a low-cost modular 5
megawatt (MW) electrolyser ‘stack’, collaborating with Ørsted to
understand the potential synergies with offshore wind farms and with
Element Energy to undertake a market analysis and explore business
models for the first industrial-scale 100MW electrolysers.
For the second phase of the project, which has now received funding from
the department for BEIS, the consortium will conduct a Front-End
Engineering Design (‘FEED’) study on a 100MW electrolyser system using
staged installations with a nominal capacity of 20MW.
The FEED study will detail the actual design of a hydrogen production
system connected to a wind farm and industrial off-taker using ITM
Power’s new generation of electrolyser stack technology, renewable
energy directly from Ørsted’s Hornsea Two offshore wind farm, and with
the resulting renewable hydrogen supplied to an industrial off-taker;
Phillips 66 Limited’s Humber Refinery. A key objective of the Gigastack
project is to identify and highlight regulatory, commercial and
technical challenges for real applications of industrial-scale renewable
hydrogen systems.
As part of the second phase, ITM Power will also install and trial both
their next-generation electrolyser stack and the semi-automated
manufacturing machines required for large-scale and high-volume
manufacture of these new large low-cost stacks. This will help validate a
complete production system capable of delivering hundreds of megawatts
of electrolysers per year.
Anders Christian Nordstrøm, Vice President for Hydrogen, Ørsted, said:
“Creating renewable hydrogen with offshore wind really has the potential
to decarbonise industrial processes, and what is needed now is to scale
up the electrolyser technology and bring the cost down. We’ve seen this
happen in offshore wind. With industry and government working together,
there has been a rapid deployment and a huge cost reduction. This
project aims to do the same with hydrogen. At the right cost, this
technology has the potential to play a huge role in meeting the UK’s
decarbonisation targets. We’re excited to be part of this project in the
Humber region where we are already very active, including constructing
the biggest offshore wind farms in the world, Hornsea One and Two, and
with them setting the global standard for deployment of offshore wind at
scale.”
Darren Cunningham, Lead Executive UK and General Manager Humber Refinery, Phillips 66 Limited said:
“Phillips 66 Limited is excited to be involved in the Gigastack project.
This project aligns with our record of developing new low-carbon
markets within the UK and worldwide, following our innovative
technologies, which are key to lithium-ion battery production and, more
recently, our biofuels produced from used cooking oil.”
“The Humber region is uniquely positioned within the UK for the
large-scale deployment of renewable hydrogen. Direct access to existing
offshore wind power and a developed industrial base with hydrogen demand
at Phillips 66 Limited’s Humber Refinery provides an ideal opportunity
to develop a new renewable hydrogen market where the feedstocks are just
water and renewable power.”
Dr Graham Cooley, CEO, ITM Power, said:
“The second phase of Gigastack includes stack scale-up, volume
manufacturing and a FEED study for a refinery deployment. The project
will result in a scalable world-class product for the production of
low-cost renewable hydrogen.”
Project partners
Gigastack brings together:
- ITM Power, a developer and provider of world-class hydrogen systems with 16 years of experience;
- Ørsted, a renewable energy company with 25 years of experience in deploying and operating wind farms;
- Phillips 66 Limited, the UK subsidiary of an international, diversified energy company and the owner of the Phillips 66 Humber Refinery, one of Europe’s most complex refineries;
- and Element Energy, a zero-carbon consultancy with 17 years of experience in hydrogen technology projects.
Details about the project
- ITM Power will finalise manufacturing designs and test their new generation of electrolyser stack technology, which enables very large stacks (up to 5MW) thus reducing costs and improving efficiency. This will enable the future deployment of 100MW scale electrolyser systems.
- ITM Power will install and trial the semi-automated
manufacturing machines required for large scale and high-volume
manufacture of these large low-cost stacks. ITM Power will remove
bottlenecks and validate a complete production system capable of
delivering hundreds of megawatts of electrolysers per year (initial
target 300MW/year, ramping to 1GW/year).
- Led by Ørsted, the consortium will conduct a FEED study on the application of a 100MW electrolyser system, using renewable energy directly from Hornsea Two offshore wind farm, and supplying the resulting renewable hydrogen to the Phillips 66 Humber Refinery, where it will reduce CO2 emissions from the refinery by lowering the consumption of fossil-based hydroge
- The 100MW will be made up of 20MW electrolyser module systems, including all aspects of dynamics and integration of renewable hydrogen supply based on power from offshore wind.
- The study will consider the market and regulatory conditions required for the installation of up to (and potentially beyond) a 100MW-scale electrolyser.
ITM Power plc manufactures integrated hydrogen energy solutions for grid balancing, energy storage and the production of green hydrogen for transport, renewable heat and chemicals. ITM Power plc was admitted to the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange in 2004. In October 2019, the Company announced the completion of a £58.8 million fundraise, including a subscription by Linde of £38 million, together with the formation of a joint-venture with Linde to focus on delivering green hydrogen to large scale industrial projects worldwide. ITM Power signed a forecourt siting agreement with Shell for hydrogen refuelling stations in September 2015, (which was extended in May 2019 to include buses, trucks, trains and ships) and in January 2018 a deal to deploy a 10MW electrolyser at Shell’s Rhineland refinery. ITM Power announced the lease of the world’s largest electrolyser factory in Sheffield with a capacity of 1GW (1,000MW) per annum in July 2019. Customers and partners include Sumitomo, Ørsted, National Grid, Cadent, Northern Gas Networks, Gasunie, RWE, Engie, BOC Linde, Toyota, Honda, Hyundai and Anglo American among others .
The Ørsted vision is a world that runs entirely on green energy. Ørsted develops, constructs and operates offshore and onshore wind farms, solar farms, energy storage facilities, and bioenergy plants, and provides energy products to its customers. Globally, Ørsted is the market leader in offshore wind and it is constructing the world’s biggest offshore wind farms off the East Coast of the UK. Its UK offshore wind farms generate enough clean electricity for over three million UK homes. Ørsted ranks #1 in Corporate Knights’ 2020 index of the Global 100 most sustainable corporations in the world and is recognised on the CDP Climate Change A List as a global leader on climate action. Headquartered in Denmark, Ørsted employs 6,500 people, including over 1000 in the UK. Ørsted’s shares are listed on Nasdaq Copenhagen (Orsted). In 2019, the group’s revenue was DKK 67.8 billion (EUR 9.1 billion).
Phillips 66 Limited is a subsidiary of Phillips 66, a diversified energy manufacturing and logistics company. With a portfolio of Midstream, Chemicals, Refining, and Marketing and Specialties businesses, the company processes, transports, stores and markets fuels and products globally. Headquartered in Houston, the company has 14,500 employees committed to safety and operating excellence. Phillips 66 had $59 billion of assets as of September 30, 2019. Phillips 66 Limited’s Humber Refinery situated in Northern Lincolnshire has been providing energy, improving lives for over 50 year.
Element Energy is a dynamic and growing strategic energy consultancy. We specialise in the intelligent analysis of zero-carbon energy and help our clients (in the sectors of transport, power generation and buildings) to understand zero-carbon energy. Over the past decade we have gathered a team of experts based in Cambridge, London, York and Lille who provide robust technical insights into zero-carbon energy markets.
