Vitol has taken a step forward in developing plans for its 1.2GW combined heat and power plant (CHP), part of the Humber Zero decarbonisation project in North Lincolnshire. It has appointed Jonathan Briggs as project director. Briggs joins Vitol from OGCI Climate Investments, an investment fund backed by 13 oil & gas companies with a £1.3 billion investment remit to identify and invest in technologies and businesses to mitigate climate change.

The Humber Zero project is a hybrid carbon capture and storage (CCUS) and hydrogen CHP project that aims to reduce emissions by up to 5M/tCO2 per annum in industries in the Humber region. The project is  aligned with the Humber Industrial Decarbonisation deployment project (Humber-DP1), through which twelve companies are working together to deliver a low carbon industrial cluster by 2030 in the region.This will be achieved through a combination of a low carbon infrastructure, including CO2 transportation and storage and fuel switching to hydrogen.

The group has submitted a proposal to UK Research and Innovation as part of the government’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund programme to deploy and support CCUS projects in the UK. VPI Immingham, Vitol’s Immingham CHP, is leading the southern Humber part of the project.

Briggs said; “VPI sits at the heart of industry in the southern Humber, working with partners from across the area to deploy hydrogen and CCUS solutions, it can quickly contribute to reducing the UK’s CO2 emissions.”