Global consulting and engineering company Wood has been appointed as the integration project management contractor for Humber Zero, one of the leading industrial decarbonisation projects in the UK.

As the most carbon-intensive industrial cluster in the UK, the Humber emits 12.4 million tonnes a year. Humber Zero, a partnership between the Phillips 66 Humber Refinery and Vitol’s VPI Immingham power plant, is a hybrid carbon capture and storage (CCUS) and hydrogen project.

It could decarbonise the Immingham industrial complex by capturing up to 8m/tCO2 per annum for transportation and storage in nearby offshore storage locations. The project has benefitted from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) support.

The decarbonisation roadmap developed for Humber Zero envisages that Immingham will become a carbon capture and hydrogen hub, providing cost effective decarbonised energy supply and storage opportunities to both industry and National Grid.

As part of the scope of work, a multidisciplinary team from across Wood will facilitate the development and integration of the designs across the FEED packages including interface management, safety studies, licensor selection and scoping of future services. In addition, Wood will support VPI Immingham and Phillips 66 through the subsequent FEED delivery and EPC contractor tendering process. This award builds on the feasibility and pre-FEED studies carried out by Wood to support the development of the Humber Zero project

Giuseppe Zuccaro, president of process & chemicals at Wood, said: “We are delighted to be working alongside VPI Immingham and Phillips 66 on the Humber Zero project. Wood is focused on driving the global energy transition and a milestone project of this kind could create a model for industrial decarbonisation around the world, as well as helping the UK to meet its goal of reaching net-zero by 2050.”

Jonathan Briggs, Humber Zero project director, said: “We are pleased to appoint Wood on this important contract. It is the next major step in this exciting project, which benefits from UKRI support, and which is set to become the UK’s gateway carbon capture project.”

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is one of the components of the 10-point plan for the government’s Green Industrial Revolution, announced by prime minister Boris Johnson in November 2020, and is critical to the UK achieving its legislated goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

The government has set a target to remove 10-million tonnes of the UK’s annual CO2 emissions by 2030, a figure equivalent to all industrial emissions from the Humber region.