Industrial Hydrogen in the North East of England
by Karen Hall
Vice President, Technical Operations of the
National Hydrogen Association

Huntsman European Petrochemicals and its predecessor ICI have successfully used depleted brine fields for underground storage of hydrogen in the North East of England for nearly 3 decades. Their experience in the petrochemical industry, plus their knowledge of the area geography has enabled Huntsman to store excess hydrogen to solve supply and demand imbalances.

The brine fields were used in the 1960s and 1970s to extract salt for chlorine and caustic soda used in an industrial area of North East of England known as North Tees and Wilton. This process left a large hole in the ground. ICI took advantage of the space by stabilizing the caverns for storage of petrochemicals and gases (since the 1960s), including hydrogen (since the 1970s). If a cavern was targeted for storage, the salt was extracted in a way to develop a large (thousands of cubic meters) cylindrical storage cavity. This storage system was shown to be viable because the underground strata of salt are 350 meters to 600+meters below ground, and 20-30 meters deep. ICI would drill a hole to the salt layer to extract the brine and increase the cavity.

Huntsman European Petrochemicals came into existence on 1 July 1999 when the business was purchased by Huntsman Corporation from ICI as part of a major acquisition. Virtually all of the European Petrochemicals manufacturing operations are based at two large chemical complexes on Teesside, UK - Wilton and North Tees sites. Both sites straddle either side of the industrial River Tees.

The Petrochemicals business also operates a series of pipelines, one of which is a major ethylene pipeline traveling across the Pennines in the North of England from Wilton westwards over to Merseyside, where Huntsman has a small team based in the Runcorn area looking after that end of the pipeline operations.

Wilton International continues to provide industrial space to a growing number of companies, particularly those involved in chemicals and processing, as well as growing manufacturing companies. With a unique existing infrastructure and regional support, they offer excellent opportunities for companies from small manufacturing start-ups to well-established multinationals.

Huntsman European Petrochemicals is totally committed to safety. Codes of Practice include: community awareness & emergency response (CAER); distribution code; employee health & safety code; pollution prevention code; process safety code; and the product stewardship code.

For more information about Huntsman Petrochemicals, please visit www.huntsman.com/petrochemicals.

For additional information on Wilton International, please visit www.wiltoninternational.uk.com.