• Essar Oil UK signs ‘Heads of Terms’ offtake agreement for 280MW+ of Hydrogen, to support the decarbonisation of its processes
• Vertex Hydrogen (a joint venture between Essar and Progressive Energy) is developing the first large scale, low carbon hydrogen production hub in the UK.
• Vertex is one of the leading low carbon hydrogen projects globally and as part of the HyNet Consortium, was recently selected as one of four hydrogen projects to proceed to the due diligence phase in the UK Government’s Phase-2 Cluster Sequencing Process.

Stanlow, 28 September 2022: Essar Oil UK Limited (Essar) announces it has signed a ‘Heads of Terms’ offtake agreement with Vertex Hydrogen (Vertex) for the supply of 280MW+ of Hydrogen. The hydrogen will then be used to help decarbonise Essar’s existing production facilities including the new hydrogen powered furnace which was delivered in August this year. (www.essaroil.co.uk)

Vertex, a joint venture between Essar and Progressive Energy, is developing the first large scale, low carbon hydrogen production hub in the UK, as part of the HyNet Consortium (www.hynet.co.uk). This will produce (in its initial phases) 1GW of hydrogen (the equivalent energy use of a large UK city like Liverpool) and capture some 1.8 million tonnes of carbon per annum. By 2030, Vertex expects to deliver nearly 4GW of low carbon hydrogen, equivalent to c.40% of the UK Government’s national target.

Essar achieved a new milestone in its ongoing transition to low carbon operations, following the UK Government’s decision in August this year to shortlist the construction of the hydrogen production plants and a separate carbon capture project at its site in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire. This commitment was confirmed in the UK’s Government’s recent policy statement ‘The Plan for Growth’.

The two projects form part of the Essar’s £1 billion investment into a range of energy efficiency, low-carbon energy, and carbon capture and storage initiatives, designed to decarbonise its production processes and put Essar at the forefront of the UK’s shift to low carbon energy. The company is delivering plans to significantly reduce its emissions before the end of the decade, to become the UK’s first low-carbon refinery.

Deepak Maheshwari, Chief Executive Officer at Essar Oil UK, commented:

“This is an important statement of intent by Essar and highlights our continued commitment to becoming the UK’s first low carbon refinery. By signing this hydrogen offtake agreement with Vertex Hydrogen, we are helping to de-risk the project, while also securing supply for our production processes into the future and thereby reducing our carbon footprint.”

Vertex Hydrogen is delighted to announce that its HyNet Hydrogen Production Plant has been selected by the UK Government’s Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) to move forward in the Phase-2 Cluster Sequencing process. The project will now proceed to the due diligence stage.

Joe Seifert, CEO of Vertex Hydrogen commented “We are at the heart of the HyNet cluster and are committed to delivering a world class hydrogen economy with substantial capital investment to reduce carbon emissions, secure and grow UK manufacturing jobs and deliver value for money for stakeholders.”

“We see this announcement as further support to the hydrogen sector as the UK positions itself as a global leader in this emerging industry.”

“Congratulations also to the other three hydrogen production projects selected on the East Coast Cluster namely, BP (bpH2Teeside), Equinor (Hydrogen to Humber) and Kellas (H2NorthEast).”

• Joe Seifert has been appointed as the CEO of Vertex Hydrogen, a new company that’s leading the charge to develop low-carbon hydrogen.
• Vertex is progressing rapidly in designing and developing the UK’s first and largest low-carbon hydrogen production plant.
• By 2030, Vertex expects to deliver nearly 40% of the Government’s new hydrogen target of 10GW per year

Vertex Hydrogen Limited (“Vertex”), the organisation developing the UK’s first and largest low carbon hydrogen production hub, has today announced the appointment of Joe Seifert as its Chief Executive Officer with immediate effect. Seifert will also join Vertex’s Board of Directors. The appointment follows the launch of Vertex in January as the business rapidly mobilises to deliver a strategically important asset as the UK implements the British Energy Security Strategy, announced by Government last month.

Vertex will develop its hydrogen production plants at the Stanlow Manufacturing Complex in Ellesmere Port and will begin producing low carbon hydrogen from 2026. Once operational, the new hub will supply 1GW of low-carbon hydrogen to Essar Oil UK and to major North West and North Wales businesses. This is equivalent to the energy use of a major UK city such as Liverpool. Vertex’s hydrogen production plant will:

• Reduce carbon intensity by over one million tonnes per annum
• Unlock multi billion pounds of investment in the region
• Help secure the world class industries of the North West with high quality jobs

Vertex is a joint venture between Essar Oil UK and Progressive Energy and sits at the heart of HyNet North West, the UK’s leading industrial decarbonisation cluster being developed with partners such as Cadent Gas Ltd, INOVYN Ltd, and ENI.

Joe Seifert brings over 20 years of commercial leadership including advising and financing some of the world’s leading companies across multiple sectors, including energy, finance, infrastructure and technology.

Joe Seifert, CEO of Vertex Hydrogen, said: “It’s extremely exciting to join Vertex. The organisation is at the forefront of the UK’s energy transition, delivering the UK’s first large scale, low carbon hydrogen facility. Vertex will have a real and near-term impact on national carbon reduction targets as well as helping to secure and grow industry and jobs in the North West. We are now moving rapidly to progress the project and look forward to working with our partners to deliver.”

Prashant Ruia, Chair of Essar Oil UK, said: “We are very pleased with Joe’s appointment, which underlines the importance of Vertex Hydrogen in Essar’s plans to build a major Energy transition hub at Stanlow in North West England. Alongside Vertex Hydrogen, we are developing projects in refinery decarbonisation, Biofuels and New energies logistics. We plan to convert Stanlow, Britain’s second largest refinery, into the leading post carbon cluster to help deliver Britain’s future Energy transition plans.”

The low carbon hydrogen will be used to decarbonise industry as part of the HyNet cluster across the North West of England and North Wales.

Vertex Hydrogen, the joint venture between Essar Oil UK and Progressive Energy, has today unveiled a report detailing the development of the UK’s first ever large-scale low carbon hydrogen production plant.

The report has been launched by consortium partners Essar, Progressive Energy, Kent and Johnson Matthey to share learnings as to how they are designing and developing the ground-breaking hydrogen production plant. Hydrogen is critical to the UK’s future energy mix, providing a low carbon solution to fuel vital to heavy industry.

The plant, to be owned and operated by Vertex Hydrogen, is being engineered by Kent and will use UK company Johnson Matthey’s best in class Low Carbon Hydrogen (LCH™) technology at Essar’s Stanlow Manufacturing Complex in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire. The Front End Engineering Design (FEED) was funded by the Government’s Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (‘BEIS’) hydrogen supply competition.

The report explains how natural gas, and refinery fuel gas, will be converted into low carbon hydrogen whilst capturing carbon dioxide to be permanently stored under the sea bed in Liverpool Bay. The hub will produce 1GW of low carbon hydrogen with the first production line starting in the mid 2020’s.

Low carbon hydrogen will replace fossil fuels in industry across the North West England and North Wales, helping the UK to decarbonise towards our net zero commitments and positioning a hydrogen economy as a catalyst for low carbon growth. Industry in the region across the chemicals, ceramics, paper, glass and flexible power generation sectors have already made commitments to reduce their carbon footprint using low carbon hydrogen from HyNet. This includes a wide range of companies such as Tata Chemicals Europe, Encirc, InterGen, Solvay, Ingevity, Novelis, Pilkington Glass and Saica Paper.

The report follows Vertex’s submission of the company’s plans to BEIS last month to build the UK’s first low carbon hydrogen production hub with the HyNet cluster as part of the Government’s Cluster Sequencing process.

Chris Manson Whitton, Director of Vertex Hydrogen said:

“Our joint team of engineers, project managers and technologists, drawn from the consortium partners, have been developing this ground-breaking project over the last two years. We understand how important it is for us to share the knowledge we have learnt over this time to facilitate others who are following in our footsteps. This will both ensure the UK maintains its leadership position at the forefront of the growing global hydrogen economy and enable us to move as quickly as possible towards net zero.

The work completed to date on Vertex Hydrogen’s hydrogen production plant project demonstrates that we already have the technologies and skills within the UK workforce to design and deliver this type of project successfully.”

Jon Barden, Director of Vertex Hydrogen and COO at Essar Oil (UK) Ltd said: “Essar is committed to investing in the energy transition and, with our consortium partners, we are demonstrating how we are putting our commitment to low carbon into practice. We hope that by sharing our development approach, we can equip others to also play their part in achieving the UK’s net zero goals.”

Sam French, Business Development Director, Johnson Matthey said: “At Johnson Matthey, we are fully behind the HyNet project. What is critical now is deployment of at scale low carbon hydrogen projects. It has been a pleasure to work with our partners as it is clear that collaboration is critical to realisation of the UK’s hydrogen targets set out in the Ten Point Plan.”

Simon Naylor, Executive Vice President Engineering and Consulting, Kent said: “Kent is proud to be part of this game-changing project that has been engineered by our UK Low Carbon team who are passionate about tackling the greatest challenge of our time. And ensuring that the communities of the North West of England are the first to reap the benefits of lower impact CO2 and hydrogen production.”

The UK’s first low carbon hydrogen plant will sit at the heart of the HyNet low carbon cluster, the UK’s leading industrial decarbonisation cluster. HyNet is vital for the North West of England and North Wales to hit their net zero targets by 2050, playing their part in the fight against climate change. By 2030, HyNet aims to be a significant contributor to the Government’s target to produce 5GW of low carbon hydrogen for power, transport, industry and homes.

The report can be accessed here.

Media contacts Amy Bodey, Head of Communications, Progressive Energy: amy.bodey@progressive-energy.com +447754 852979

Michelle Lewis, Director of Corporate Affairs, Essar Oil UK: michelle.lewis@essaroil.co.uk +447805 85416

Vertex Hydrogen is a transformative new joint venture between Essar and Progressive Energy formed to provide a catalyst for a low carbon economy across North West England and North Wales, as a central part of the HyNet decarbonisation cluster. A total investment of approximately £1 billion will be committed to deliver the hydrogen production hub.

Providing low carbon hydrogen across North West England and North Wales

The UK’s first low carbon hydrogen plant will sit at the heart of the HyNet low carbon cluster. Beginning production in 2026, it will generate over 1GW of hydrogen, the equivalent to the energy used by a major British city region, for example Liverpool.

Waste fuel gases from Essar Stanlow, and natural gas, will be converted by Vertex Hydrogen into hydrogen, with carbon dioxide safely captured and stored by HyNet partner Eni SpA, underground offshore in Liverpool Bay. The hydrogen production hub will provide low carbon energy to replace fossil fuels in industry across the HyNet region, as well as heating homes, and fuelling buses, trains and trucks.

The hydrogen produced will, in the first instance, be utilised by Essar to reduce its carbon footprint at the Stanlow Manufacturing Complex. In addition, Vertex will also provide low carbon hydrogen to a wide range of businesses, including companies from the chemicals, ceramics, paper, glass and flexible power generation sectors, such as Tata Chemicals Europe, Encirc, InterGen, Solvay, Ingevity, Novelis, Glass Futures and Saica Paper – all having expressed interest already. More widely in the region, companies such as Pilkington are demonstrating use of hydrogen in their facilities. Cadent Gas Ltd is also developing the UK’s first multi-user hydrogen distribution network within HyNet.

Prashant Ruia, Essar Chairman, said: “Essar is massively committed to investing in energy transition and is building a portfolio of companies in this space. Vertex Hydrogen is a central component of that vision, which will be instrumental in helping create a hydrogen future for North West England and North East Wales. This will see over £1 billion of investment, thereby creating jobs and supporting local communities for decades to come.”

Deepak Maheshwari, Essar Chief Executive Officer, commented: “Vertex Hydrogen is a critical investment for Essar in helping it achieve its vision of becoming the UK’s first low carbon refinery and supplying UK markets with the sustainable fuels of the future.”

Chris Manson-Whitton, Director at Progressive Energy, explained: “As the founding developer of HyNet, we see the launch of Vertex Hydrogen as a key milestone. Vertex is central to unlocking the low carbon hydrogen economy, reducing emissions, creating a cleaner world for future generations whilst creating and safeguarding jobs.”

Justin Madders, MP for Ellesmere Port, commented: “Ellesmere Port is ideally positioned to develop as the heart of the UK’s hydrogen economy as the HyNet low carbon cluster continues to grow. Hydrogen is a key catalyst in the green jobs revolution as we evolve our economy to hit net zero by 2050.”

The submission marks another milestone hit in the development of the HyNet cluster.

Vertex Hydrogen announces the submission of plans to build the UK’s first low carbon hydrogen production hub as part of the Government’s Cluster Sequencing process.

The hub, which will be built at the Stanlow Manufacturing Complex in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire includes technology which will capture carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions to produce low carbon hydrogen. CO₂ emissions will be stored offshore in Liverpool Bay. The hydrogen will replace the use of fossil fuels in industry, as well as heating homes, and fuelling transport across the North West England and North Wales.

Vertex’s submission to the Government’s Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (‘BEIS’) details plans for delivery of the UK’s first low carbon hydrogen production hub and marks another milestone in the development of HyNet North West. HyNet is the UK’s leading industrial decarbonisation cluster which was successfully selected by Government to drive forward the removal of carbon emissions from industry within Track 1 of the cluster sequencing process.

Vertex Hydrogen is a transformative new joint venture between Essar and Progressive Energy, two partners within the HyNet consortium. Vertex Hydrogen has been formed to provide a catalyst for a low carbon economy across North West England and North Wales, as a central part of the HyNet decarbonisation cluster.