Essar Oil UK has announced it has signed an offtake agreement with Vertex Hydrogen 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.
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.
This will produce 1GW of hydrogen and capture some 1.8 million tonnes of carbon per annum.
Deepak Maheshwari, CEO 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.”
Joe Seifert, chief executive officer at Vertex Hydrogen, added: “Vertex will be one of the first to deliver large volumes of low carbon hydrogen, produced in the UK, to materially reduce emissions.
“Our business is driven by demand from an array of world class industries in this region and the provision of low carbon hydrogen to Essar is one of the most material so far in the energy transition sector. Partnering with initial anchor customers operating close to our hydrogen production plants is common sense as we deliver large scale production, quickly and at low cost.”
Essar signs offtake agreement with Vertex Hydrogen
