A company called Protium plans to build a green hydrogen facility called Pioneer 3 in Billingham. Protium held a consultation event on 29 April to explain its plans to local residents. I called in.
Your community centre
The event was held at Port Clarence Community Centre. I hadn’t visited the centre before, and couldn’t find it. I asked a local, who told me that you can only gain access via the Londis Store.
What is being planned?
Protium intends to build ‘Pioneer 3’, a green hydrogen plant, at the Haverton Hill Industrial Estate. This is about half a mile away from the community centre. Neighbouring Port Clarence and Haverton Hill are both classed as part of Billingham, but they’re quite remote, about a mile and a half away, on the other side of the massive former ICI Billingham plant. The entrance to the industrial estate can be seen below.
Corporate guff
Protium intends to put the community at the heart of the project. Some of these displays may have been generated using artificial intelligence.
The Pioneers
Protium’s Pioneer 1 and 2 facilities are in Baglan Bay, South Wales. Pioneer 2 is due to start production later in 2026. Billingham’s Pioneer 3 will be larger than both of these, and will use a 15MW (megawatt) electricity supply to make up to 1.8 tonnes of hydrogen per day.
The hydrogen kaleidoscope
Time for a quick explainer. Hydrogen comes in many colours, depending on the amount of CO₂ generated in producing it. In fact there are 10 different colours of hydrogen, more than in a rainbow. You can read about these here, but I’m going to focus on just three, as follows:
Grey hydrogen – this is hydrogen made from a fossil fuel such as natural gas. All of the hydrogen produced in the UK, apart from a very small quantity, is grey hydrogen.
Blue Hydrogen – this is hydrogen made from natural gas, but the CO₂ produced as a result is captured. Blue hydrogen was already very expensive to make, and the cost has recently doubled as a result of the Iran war. Despite numerous plans announced over the past two decades, blue hydrogen is very rare. None is produced in the UK, for example. This is because carbon capture is a green-washing delusion.
Green Hydrogen – this is hydrogen made from renewables such as wind or solar. There’s some small-scale manufacture of green hydrogen in the UK. But, as with many other industries, China has led the pack, and now has a capacity to make a million tonnes of green hydrogen per year.
I’ve summarised the remaining information provided at the event as a series of frequently asked questions:
How’s Teesside doing when it comes to hydrogen manufacture?
Very well indeed. German company Linde operates a hydrogen manufacturing facility at its Seal Sands facility near Billingham. The company operates under the ‘BOC’ brand in the UK. Incredibly, BOC’s Billingham facility manufactures half of the entire UK output of hydrogen. The company supplies major users via an 80-mile pipeline network. You can read more about Teesside’s pipeline network here. But, of course, all of BOC’s production is grey hydrogen.
When will Teesside move away from grey hydrogen?
Teessiders have been waiting a long time for its journey along the hydrogen spectrum. There have been a lot of false starts. The three largest hydrogen promises came to nothing. These were two ‘blue’ hydrogen plants called H2Teesside and H2NorthEast, and a ‘green’ hydrogen facility known as HyGreen. Protium’s Pioneer 3 was first announced almost five years ago, in October 2021. But, as is frequently the case on Teesside, these sorts of announcements are made prematurely and repeatedly to create the illusion of activity, when there’s nothing really happening at all.
How will Pioneer 3 make green hydrogen?
Green hydrogen will be produced by electrolysis, a process that uses electricity to split water into hydrogen (H2) and oxygen (O2). Unfortunately, it won’t be cost effective to recover the oxygen, so this will be vented into the atmosphere.
How is this green?
To be defined as ‘green’ hydrogen, the electricity must come from renewable sources, such as wind or solar.
So Pioneer 3’s green hydrogen will be green, right?
Well not quite. The plant’s electricity will be sourced from an on-site substation connected to the National Grid. The Haverton Hill Industrial Estate is within the former Furness Shipyard, latterly known as Swan Hunter. The shipyard has retained an underground cable network, which Pioneer 3 will utilise. This is one of the reasons for choosing this site. But electricity from the grid isn’t green; it’s just regular electricity.
So Pioneer 3’s green hydrogen won’t be green then?
It will, sort of. The company has used some clever financial engineering. It will use electricity certified green, but which will be sourced from a wind farm 200 miles away in Scotland. That electricity will be consumed locally, but it will be renewable, and can be counted as green energy for the purposes of a ‘green’ hydrogen plant 200 miles away in Teesside. A lot of companies do this. For example, Network Rail’s offices in London get 65% of their electricity from a wind farm in North Wales. They don’t really, of course, but it looks good in the corporate brochures.
Why can’t renewable electricity be sourced locally?
Protium made an attempt to build some solar panels within the industrial estate, but this didn’t happen due to land ownership issues. This is a missed opportunity. There are four huge fabrication shops within the estate, remnants of the shipbuilding days, which would be ideal for solar panel installation.
Is green hydrogen production difficult?
It can be. CF Industries which coincidentally operates a fertiliser plant about a mile from the proposed Pioneer 3 facility in Billingham, built its own 20MW green hydrogen plant in Louisiana, but couldn’t get it to work, despite three years of effort. The company has just had to write off the entire $76mn cost of the plant.
Can hydrogen explode?
Yes it can, with lethal consequences, as this recent episode in France confirms. But instances at well-run plants are rare. The nearest houses to Pioneer 3 would only be about 100 metres away, but they would be shielded from an explosion by a railway embankment.
Doesn’t green hydrogen production involve forever chemicals?
Yes, the chemical process includes polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), commonly known as ‘forever chemicals’. These must be carefully removed, then incinerated at a temperature of 1000°C.
Will Pioneer 3 create a lot of jobs?
No, most of the facilities will be built off-site in modular form. The on-site construction phase is expected to take four months. Once up and running, the plant will employ six people. The plant’s daily production of 1.8 tonnes of hydrogen per will generate about three lorry journeys.
Protium is making some bold environmental claims. Do they stack up?
Protium claims that green hydrogen plays a key role in the journey to reach net zero. This may be true at some stage in the future but, right now, the role of green hydrogen in the UK is so small that its role can’t reasonably be described as key. Similarly, Protium claims that ‘green hydrogen is the next step in decarbonisation, happening here in Teesside’. This is technically true, but at this stage it’s such a small step that it’s insignificant. The claims were prominent on displays at the consultation event.
Is green hydrogen expensive?
Yes, it costs between £5,000 and £8,000 per tonne. Transportation costs typically add another £1,000 to £2,000 per tonne. Grey hydrogen, on the other hand, usually costs between £1,500 and £2,500 per tonne. Once up and running, Pioneer 3 will have to compete with BOC, just two miles up the road. BOC’s plant produces about 32,000 tonnes of hydrogen per year. Pioneer 3, running at full tilt, seven days per week, will produce 660 tonnes per year. So, BOC will be producing fifty times more hydrogen than Pioneer 3, at a quarter of the price.
Will companies be prepared to pay a premium for a ‘green’ product?
Protium will be hoping so, but that’s some premium. Teesside’s chemical sector is operating at wafer thin margins as it is.
What’s the next step?
Protium has applied to Stockton Borough Council for planning permission for Pioneer 3. Assuming that the application is granted, the plant may be up and running by the end of 2028. Protium intends to hold a second public consultation event before construction commences. Good luck to Protium and Pioneer 3. They’re going to need it.
