Protium, the UK-based green hydrogen energy services company, and its consortium partner, Petrofac, will explore the deployment of green hydrogen technology with meat-free pioneer Quorn.
Quorn’s production facility, Belasis, is based in Billingham in north east England, and continues to expand its production capacity to support the company’s ongoing growth. Protium and Petrofac will assess how the introduction of dual-fuel boilers (combusting both hydrogen and natural gas blend) can meet their expanding production capacity.
Located close to Quorn’s Belasis production facility, the companies will explore the feasibility of supplying green hydrogen via a pipeline, as part of Protium’s green hydrogen project in Teesside, England.
The project – which would further accelerate the brand’s decarbonisation efforts – demonstrates yet another sustainability commitment from Quorn and forms part of their ambitious net positive roadmap.
Following a string of recent updates demonstrating Protium’s project velocity and expanding CAPEX pipeline, this project represents a wider strategic move from Protium, who recently announced a planned hydrogen hub, in Teesside, located 1 mile from Belasis. Here, the team will be utilising Wilton Engineering’s site to deploy up to 40 MW of electrolysis, which will produce over 9 tpd of green hydrogen. Initially, Protium would look to displace part of Quorn's natural gas demand with green hydrogen which could save as much as 13 200 tpy of CO2 emissions. This would be equivalent to removing 7600 cars from the road.
The project could serve as a blueprint for other manufacturing companies looking to decarbonise their manufacturing processes, not only in the vegan protein space, but across the broader food and beverage manufacturing sector.
According to a 2021 report by the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP), the UK food and beverage industry contributes to 35% of the UK’s total greenhouse gas emissions, meaning the industry plays an integral role in tackling climate change and achieving net zero.
Exploring green hydrogen for energy or heat sources is an increasingly prevalent trend shaping the UK manufacturing arena, with many businesses either in the early stages of developing their net zero strategies, or others are looking to implement alternative energy sources and technologies that have been proven to drastically reduce emissions.
This project builds on Protium’s recent announcement with AB InBev and demonstrates the company’s expertise in decarbonising the food and drink sector.