A HYDROGEN company has signed agreements to supply over 1,000MW of low-carbon hydrogen to industrial names across the north west.

Vertex Hydrogen is a leader in the energy transition, developing the UK’s first large-scale, low-carbon hydrogen production hub at Essar’s site in Ellesmere Port.

The company has agreed to supply over 1,000MW of low-carbon hydrogen to leading industrial names in the region from their Ellesmere Port site once it is up and running.

Some of these businesses include Encirc, Tata Chemicals Europe, Pilkington United Kingdom Limited, Fulcrum BioEnergy, SOG Group, Carrington Power ESB and Warrington Ingevity.

This is a similar amount of energy that powers a major city like Liverpool and enables the vital hydrogen infrastructure investments in the region.

The project will capture some 1.8 million tonnes of CO2 per annum to be stored by the HyNet project to reduce more than 10% of the region’s industrial emissions - which is the equivalent to taking 750,000 cars off the roads.

It will also see over £2 billion of direct investments in the hydrogen plant and associated regional hydrogen transport and storage infrastructure.

Deepak Maheshwari, CEO of Essar Oil UK, added: "This offtake agreement, and our other initiatives, are continuing examples of us taking clear actions to deliver our strategic goals.

"We are proud to be a leader in the region and the UK more broadly in industrial decarbonisation."

The hydrogen demand comes from global businesses operating in the region, who are looking to become the first low-carbon operations in a number of key sectors by switching their current high-carbon fuels to low-carbon hydrogen.

These consumers are substantial direct and indirect contributors to the 340,000 people employed in manufacturing in the North-West. It also includes innovators in the sustainable aviation fuels, glass and cement industries.

What Cadent and Vertex had to say

Darren Elsom, Director of Hydrogen Operations at Cadent said: "We warmly welcome the announcement that Vertex has signed agreements for over 1000MW of low carbon Hydrogen, which is a major step in decarbonising industry in the North-West.

"At Cadent we remain focussed on developing the pipeline infrastructure in readiness to connect and transport Hydrogen to industry whilst protecting the planet for our customers and the communities we serve."

Joe Seifert, CEO of Vertex Hydrogen added: "We have always said that Vertex is demand-led from leading industrial companies and we have now signed agreements for over 1000MW of hydrogen - our entire expected production capacity from the initial phases of our project.

"This milestone gives us huge confidence in the economics of the project and the long-term demand for low-carbon hydrogen in the coming decades."

Vertex Hydrogen Limited is a joint venture between Essar and Progressive Energy.