Vertex Hydrogen has signed a ‘Heads of Terms’ offtake agreement for over 200 megawatts of low carbon hydrogen with Northwich-based Tata Chemicals Europe (“TCE”).
TCE is one of Europe’s leading producers of sodium carbonate, salt, sodium bicarbonate, and other products used in the manufacture of food and animal feed, glass, detergents, chemicals, and several other industry applications.
In June 2022, Tata opened the UK’s first industrial-scale carbon capture and usage plant. The $20 million investment captures 40,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year. Under the new offtake agreement, Vertex will supply TCE with hydrogen as the manufacturer continues to decarbonize its operations in the UK with a target of achieving “net zero” manufacturing by 2030.
Global demand for hydrogen and its emerging applications is projected to increase tenfold or more by 2050, surpassing the current infrastructure for producing and delivering hydrogen. As hydrogen usage expands from traditional industrial uses to the fuel of a clean future, the need to produce it in larger quantities and from low- and zero-carbon sources is clear.
The hydrogen produced in nuclear plants can be utilized to serve many industries such as renewable fuels production, oil and metals refining, ammonia synthesis, mining operations, and mobility in sectors such as heavy trucks, buses, and even air travel.
Other groups, such as the Green Hydrogen Catapult also advocate for rapid growth and implementation of green hydrogen, and it has increased its commitment to commission electrolyzers used to make the gas. The Department of Energy’s Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office says it is committed to making the development of clean fuel cost-effective and wants to develop technologies to produce hydrogen at $2 a kilogram by 2025 and $1 a kilogram by 2030 using net zero carbon sources.
