Gigastack: UK Renewable Hydrogen Technology Hub
Gigastack is the UK’s flagship electrolytic hydrogen project, led by Phillips 66 Limited and Orsted. The project aims to harness offshore wind to power electrolysis and produce hydrogen, a lower emission fuel, to power industry.
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Proving economically viable renewable hydrogen at scale
Gigastack brings together an ambitious consortium, comprised of ITM Power, Ørsted, Phillips 66 and Element Energy to prove economically viable renewable hydrogen at scale by:
- Developing electrolyser production for Gigawatt scale deployments
- Accessing local & industry leading renewable offshore wind power
- Supplying bulk hydrogen to meet local large-scale industry demands
- Decarbonising large industrial clusters through collaboration
Renewable hydrogen is increasingly recognised as a vital component of the UK’s energy future. It is produced by splitting water into oxygen and hydrogen in an electrolyser using renewable electricity. There are no emissions associated with this type of production. To date, renewable hydrogen has helped to decarbonise small passenger car and bus fleets as well as small scale gas grids through demonstration projects. Scaling this to decarbonise industry, larger fleets and the UK’s gas networks requires:
- The next generation of electrolyser stack – to reduce the underlying cost of manufacture;
- Electrolyser manufacturing capacity – to reduce costs through economies of scale;
- Wind farm electrolyser synergies – to increase overall system efficiency and ensure as low as possible a price for input electricity;
all of which are under development in Gigastack.
Gigastack Phase 1 focused on;
- Developing designs for ITM Power’s next-generation low-cost modular 5MW electrolyser ‘stack’;
- Planning for ITM Power’s ‘Giga-Factory’ in Bessemer park;
- Exploring wind farm–electrolyser synergies to access low-cost renewable hydrogen production; and
- Conducting business case analysis on the 100MW electrolyser deployments of the future.
This feasibility study demonstrated the potential of renewable hydrogen and supported the partners’ successful application for Phase 2 funding.
Designing a hydrogen production system
In Gigastack Phase 2, the consortium is conducting a Front-End Engineering Design (‘FEED’) study on a 100MW electrolyser system in the Humber, the UK’s largest industrial cluster by emissions, (12.4MtCO2 per year).
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 next generation of electrolyser stack technology; renewable energy directly from Ørsted’s Hornsea Two offshore wind farm; and with the resulting renewable hydrogen supplied to the Phillips 66 Humber Refinery. A key objective of the Gigastack Phase 2 project is to identify and highlight regulatory, commercial and technical challenges for real applications of industrial-scale renewable hydrogen systems.
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 to validate a complete production system capable of delivering hundreds of megawatts of electrolysers per year.
For more information, please visit www.Gigastack.co.uk.
This project is part of the Zero Carbon Humber partnership.
Hydrogen
Offshore wind powered
Centre for UK renewable hydrogen
Heavy industry
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Gigastack will demonstrate that renewable hydrogen is essential to the UK’s 2050 net-zero greenhouse gas emission target”
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Invest Humber: Clean Growth in the UK’s Energy Estuary was created and is managed by Future Humber.
Future Humber promotes the region's distinctive strengths to the widest audience and accelerates opportunities to unlock the potential in the Humber.
Diana Taylor is the Managing Director of Future Humber. She is responsible for guiding the vision and strategy to market the Humber to the UK, Europe, and beyond. Diana works with partners and stakeholders to build the voice of the region and enable businesses and organisations within the Humber to succeed and grow.
If you have a question about Invest Humber or would like to find out more about any of the projects included on the website, you can contact Diana below.
