Ineos targets UK clean hydrogen market with Runcorn upgrade

Investment in facilities will allow hydrogen sales into transport and power generation sectors

Chemicals group Ineos has unveiled plans to upgrade operations at its Runcorn complex in northwest England to produce hydrogen of adequate quality to use in transport and power generation from 2023. The project will costs “tens of millions of pounds” and forms part of the €2bn ($2.33bn) investment in clean hydrogen production at sites across Europe announced by Ineos in mid-October. The Runcorn site, operated by Ineos subsidiary Inovyn, produces around 7,000t/yr of hydrogen as a byproduct of electrolyser-based production of chloralkali. The upgrade will see the installation of facilities to purify and compress the hydrogen to a high-enough quality to be used in fuel cells for distribution t