The company announced its green hydrogen project last year, located on Wilton Universal Group’s site in the UK north-east.
Building a hydrogen production facility will provide Protium with the infrastructure necessary to generate renewable green hydrogen energy, with plans to supply local manufacturers once built. It will also include the development of green hydrogen storage to support the largest PEM electrolyser in Teesside to enable local manufacturing and logistics businesses to transition from natural gas and diesel energy sources.
The expanded project covers 68.8MW of electrolysis capacity, including storage, upon final completion in 2026, making it Protium’s largest green hydrogen project to date.
The Teesside project is set to be developed in two phases. The first, scheduled to take place in Q3 2025, will include 1 array of the PEM electrolyser, equivalent to 17.2MW capacity. Early deployment of phase 1 will mean Protium will be the first movers of electrolytic hydrogen production.
The second phase will scale-up the first phase of the electrolyser by 3 arrays, to have 4 arrays of the PEM electrolyser in total, equivalent to 68.8MW capacity.
It will utilise Protium developed renewable energy generators (including both solar and wind power). With phase 2 now being almost 70MW, the Tees Valley Net Zero Project is now Protium’s biggest green hydrogen project to date.
Protium will own, operate, and finance the project, whilst collaborating with planning, environmental and engineering partners up until the point of construction and operation, set to take place in 2025.
The green hydrogen company is also working on securing carbon emissive off-takers in order to reduce carbon emissions as much as possible and provide clean air for the region.
Chris Jackson, CEO of Protium, said: “To reach the UK’s ambitious goals for Net Zero, we believe the technologies we have readily available today need to be implemented rather than waiting for new technology to be developed.”
With a backdrop of the ongoing energy crisis in the UK and growing concerns over energy security and future costs, the facility’s expansion is to be welcomed.
It follows electrical and technical feasibility as well as the reaction to accommodating the higher hydrogen demand from off-takers in the area expected in years to come.
As more businesses in the UK look to reduce their emissions across operations, logistics, and manufacturing, the Tees Valley Net Zero Project will enable heavy CO2 emitters in the Teesside area to significantly decarbonise their industrial heat and mobility requirements and consequently make a marked contribution towards the UK government’s goal of achieving net zero.
Protium – which will be hosting a launch event for the Tees Valley Net Zero Project in September – aims to develop 1GW of green hydrogen production assets in the UK by 2030, 20% of the government target.
In June, Protium secured £40.5m investment in its latest funding round led by SWEN Capital Partners, through its SWIFT 2 fund. Additional investment comes from Barclays’ Sustainable Impact Capital programme, and existing Protium investors.
In March 2021, the UK government announced £3m investment to develop Tees Valley as the UK’s first ever hydrogen transport hub, which could create up to 5,000 new jobs as part of the ‘build back greener’ campaign. Tees Valley was also announced as one of the first areas to gain Freeport status in the UK.
Protium teamed up with Siemens earlier this year to develop rapid hydrogen refuelling technology for the aviation industry as part of a digital-focused partnership that hopes to reshape green infrastructure for aircraft.
Read more: Hydrogen aircraft infrastructure to receive digital boost