Equinor’s H2H Saltend has become the second major blue hydrogen project — and the first linked to the East Coast Cluster carbon capture and storage (CCS) network — to secure planning permission from UK authorities, taking the scheme a step closer to a final investment decision (FID).

Located in the Saltend Chemicals Park in Hull, the 600MW project will replace an existing steam methane reforming unit (which produces grey hydrogen from fossil gas) with a high-efficiency autothermal methane reformer (ATR) and CCS technology that Equinor claims will capture “at least” 95% of CO2 emissions.

The hydrogen produced at Saltend will be used to meet both existing and new demand within the industrial park and nearby area, with many processes that currently run on gas switched to run on H₂ instead. This includes a plan to blend hydrogen into the gas-fired Triton Power Station, owned by Equinor and utility SSE Thermal, located within the chemicals plant.