INEOS completed a £30 million investment at its Hull, U.K. manufacturing site to convert the facility to run on clean-burning hydrogen instead of natural gas. 

The project is part of INEOS’ wider strategy to decarbonize its operations across the U.K. and Europe and has resulted in a 75% cut in carbon emissions. The Saltend-based site now operates with dramatically lower emissions due to the switch to hydrogen.

INEOS Acetyls is the only industrial scale manufacturer of acetic acid, acetic anhydride, and ethyl acetate in Europe.

“We’ve put £30 million into Hull to do the right thing – cut emissions, clean up the site, and future-proof our operations,” said David Brooks, CEO of INEOS Acetyls, in a statement. “We’ve slashed CO2 by 75%. That’s not a plan. That’s a result. Like most chemical businesses in the U.K., 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 U.K. and European markets with highly reliable and low carbon products.”

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. INEOS believes this model can be replicated across the industry.

The Hull upgrade is one of several major decarbonization projects underway across INEOS sites, including Grangemouth and Köln, as the company pushes hard to meet and beat its climate targets. This investment will deliver a transformational step change improvement in the site’s product carbon footprint.

INEOS Acetyls employs more than 500 people globally. In Hull, it directly employs more than 300 people and supports hundreds more through its supply chain.