Costain wins multimillion-pound FEED contract for Teesside hydrogen pipeline network

COSTAIN has been awarded a front-end engineering and design (FEED) contract by bp for a new hydrogen pipeline network in Teesside as part of the East Coast carbon capture cluster.

The multimillion-pound contract involves engineering a 31 km onshore pipeline distribution network that will deliver purified and dehydrated hydrogen from bp’s planned hydrogen plant to industrial customers in the region. It is part of wider efforts by the government to create industrial clusters that displace natural gas consumption and capture CO2 emissions.

Bp’s H2Teesside plant will be a so-called blue hydrogen facility with the capacity to produce 160,000 t/y. This involves reforming natural gas into hydrogen, which also produces CO2. This will be captured and stored offshore.

Andy Lane, vice-president for hydrogen and CCUS at bp, said: “These agreements mark further critical milestones for H2Teesside as the project continues to move towards EPC [engineering, procurement, and construction] contracts and then construction. The project could play a critical role in decarbonising industry on Teesside, helping to transform the region into a leading hydrogen hub and kickstart the UK’s low carbon hydrogen economy.”

The work covered under its new FEED contract for the hydrogen pipeline system is scheduled for completion in 2025.

Earlier this year, Costain completed the FEED for the East Coast Cluster’s onshore CO2 pipeline system, claiming what is says was the world-first design of a wholly above ground vapour phase CO2-gathering network.

In March, contracts worth £4bn (US$5.1bn) were awarded to contractors to help design and build the CO2 pipeline network and a power plant for the cluster, one of four selected by the government, which has set aside £20bn in state funding for carbon capture development. Costain was selected to oversee and manage the EPC of the East Coast Cluster’s onshore CO2 gathering systems and associated utilities.