LONDON, Sept 22 (Reuters) - INEOS said on
Wednesday it will convert its vast Scottish petrochemicals plant
and oil refinery at Grangemouth to run on hydrogen at a cost of
more than 1 billion pounds ($1.4 billion) to make it 'net zero'
for carbon emissions by 2045.
Britain has a target to reach net zero by 2050 and has
significantly reduced emissions from power generation, but has
found it harder to cut industry's carbon footprint.
Andrew Gardner, Chairman of INEOS Grangemouth said the
company would initially use gas to produce its own hydrogen on
site, so-called blue hydrogen, with at least 1 million tonnes of
carbon dioxide (CO2) stored and captured by 2030.
"The next stage would be using green hydrogen," Gardner told
Reuters, to bring the entire site to net zero by 2045.
Green hydrogen is produced using renewable power sources
such as wind or solar.
Gardner said annual emissions were around 5 million tonnes
of CO2 when INEOS took over the site from BP in 2005, but
these are now around 3 million tonnes a year and are expected to
fall to 1.8 million tonnes by 2030.
INEOS said in July it would work with the Acorn carbon
capture and storage project in Scotland, which aims to store CO2
emissions in the North Sea. nL5N2OL11I]
It has also backed hydrogen investment firm HydrogenOne
Capital Growth.
($1 = 0.7324 pounds)
(Reporting by Susanna Twidale; Editing by Alexander Smith)
BP (BP.)