Ineos, the petrochemicals giant owned by British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe, has announced plans to invest £1bn in reducing greenhouse gas emissions from its Grangemouth refinery on the Firth of Forth.
The multinational said it and Grangemouth partner PetroIneos - a joint venture between PetroChina and Ineos - aim to cut carbon emissions to net zero by 2045, including a reduction of at least 60% of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
Despite recent research showing that using carbon capture to make ‘blue hydrogen’ causes more pollution than burning coal, Ineos said all businesses at Grangemouth will move to the production and use of hydrogen by 2030, using carbon capture to store at least 1mln tonnes of CO2 per year.
The plan is to capture CO2 from existing hydrogen production and also to build a “world-scale” blue hydrogen production plant.
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In July, Ineos and Petroineos agreed to join Scotland’s Acorn carbon capture and storage (CCS) project to work together to develop Scotland’s first CCS system at Grangemouth, starting in 2027.
Andrew Gardner, chairman of Ineos Grangemouth, said: “Our roadmap builds on the significant reductions we’ve already made at Grangemouth. When Ineos bought the site in 2005 it was emitting around 5mln tonnes of CO2 per year. We’ve already reduced that to 3mln tonnes today.”
He said the next step, using hydrogen combined with carbon capture via the Acorn project, will reduce this to below 2mln.
“Climate change is one of the most urgent environmental, economic and social issues of our time,” he said.