Under the Humber Hydrogen banner, the quartet aim to secure around £500m ($674m) in funding from the government’s Hydrogen Transport and Storage Business Model process to develop a hydrogen network connecting sites in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.

It comes just weeks after Norwegian oil and gas firm Equinor, energy player SSE, and gas storage major Centrica signed a letter to Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, calling for hydrogen support in the region amid industrial decline.

If successful in the funding bid, the group says its proposed network would connect regional hydrogen production, storage, and consumption, while also tapping into an unconfirmed national hydrogen transmission network.

Equinor, SSE, and Centrica have already launched public consultations for their planned 54km Humber Hydrogen Pipeline. It would connect Centrica and Equinor’s planned 1GW blue hydrogen plant in Easington, Equinor’s proposed H2H Saltend blue hydrogen project, and SSE and Equinor’s repurposed natural gas storage caverns in Aldbrough.

The government announced the funding package last summer to build the “UK’s first regional hydrogen transport and storage network.”

It will be awarded through a competitive bidding process. Other projects, including Cadent’s planned 150km east coast network, and HyNet’s 100km North West Hydrogen Pipeline, are expected to be in the running.

Ian Radley, Chief Commercial Officer at operator National Gas, argued Humber was “the obvious choice” for the UK’s first hydrogen network.

“Nowhere else in Britain can match what it offers in industrial demand, infrastructure, supply chains, geological storage, and skilled people who can unlock Britain’s clean power potential,” he argued.

The plans are being viewed as a way to revive the region, which last year saw the closure of a bioethanol plant and a refinery, along with cancelled plans to set up rare earths refining, job cuts at chemicals firms, and the mothballing of an ammonia facility.

“The Humber is integral to the UK’s clean power and economic growth missions, and becoming the country’s first Hydrogen network will help to unlock its potential,” said Kelly de Azevedo Dent, Development Director at SSE Thermal.

However, questions remain about how clean hydrogen could re-energise industries already struggling to compete with international imports, with the energy carrier continuing to face high costs.