INEOS has completed a £30 million (€34 million) investment at its Hull manufacturing site in the UK, converting the facility to run on clean-burning hydrogen instead of natural gas. This has resulted in a 75% cut in carbon emissions – the equivalent of taking around 160,000 petrol cars off the road and a huge step towards INEOS’ net zero commitment, well ahead of 2050.
The investment is part of INEOS’ wider strategy to decarbonise its operations across the UK and Europe. INEOS Acetyls is the only industrial scale manufacturer of acetic acid, acetic anhydride, and ethyl acetate in Europe. These products are essential chemicals used in everyday life, from medicines to clean water and the Saltend-based site now operates with dramatically lower emissions thanks to the switch to hydrogen.
David Brooks, CEO INEOS Acetyls says: ‘We’ve put £30 million into Hull to do the right thing – cut emissions, clean up the site, and future-proof our operations. We’ve slashed CO₂ by 75%. That’s not a plan. That’s a result. Like most chemical businesses in the UK, we are working hard to compete in global markets while facing some of the highest energy and carbon costs in the world. This investment is another step in our plans to supply the UK and European markets with highly reliable and low carbon products.”
This investment will deliver a transformational step change improvement in the site’s product carbon footprint, which is already world leading. The hydrogen used at the site is produced as a co-product from existing manufacturing processes, making it a smart, efficient use of resources already on hand. It’s a model INEOS believes can be replicated across the industry.
The Hull upgrade is one of several major decarbonisation projects underway across INEOS sites, including Grangemouth and Köln, as the company pushes hard to meet – and beat – its climate targets.
