From Blueprint to Reality 2026

There are six major projects being prioritized within the HyNet cluster, helping to drive decarbonization:27 Infrastructure: –Eni’s Liverpool Bay T&S: This flagship project provides the backbone for the HyNet cluster. Once constructed, industrial emitters will be able to connect to the T&S infrastructure, which will see the CO2 captured and permanently stored in depleted gas reservoirs in the Irish Sea. The network will have an initial capacity of 4.5 million tonnes (Mt) of CO2 per year with potential to expand to up to 10 Mt dependent on demand. Eni reached financial close on the project in April 2025, with the award of an economic licence by the UK authorities. Industry: –Encyclis waste-to-energy: The UK’s first full- scale carbon capture plant at a waste-to-energy facility will be developed at Encyclis’ Protos Energy Recovery Facility, from which the CO2 will be transported and stored through Eni’s pipeline infrastructure. The project, which reached FID in September 2025, will prevent the release of around 370,000 tonnes of CO2 per year. –Heidelberg Materials cement plant: Heidelberg Materials is constructing one of the world’s first carbon capture facilities to enable fully decarbonized cement production, with plans to be operational by 2029. There is potential for up to 1 million tonnes of CO2 to be captured at the plant. Heidelberg Materials’ Padeswood CCS facility in North Wales reached FID in September 2025, after final agreement with the UK authorities. –Hydrogen production plant: Essar Energy Transition (EET) is developing a 350 MW blue hydrogen plant, creating hydrogen from natural gas feedstock with an integrated carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) facility. Production is expected to start before 2030, with capacity to capture ~600,000 tonnes of CO2 per year. Phase 2 of the project is targeting 1,000 MW with potential to capture 1.9 million tonnes of CO2 per year.28 –Low-carbon electricity production: Uniper is developing a new CCS-enabled low-carbon power plant at Connah’s Quay, with plans for the combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power station to be operational by 2030. The plant is expected to provide around 1.1 GW of low- carbon electricity in two phases, with the option to expand to up to 1.38 GW of capacity.29 –Bioenergy carbon capture project: Evero’s energy from waste-wood plant aims to become the UK’s first bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) facility, targeting the removal of more than 200,000 tonnes of CO2 per year by 2029.30 These industry projects represent a potential first phase of users of Eni’s CO2 T&S infrastructure. An additional five projects are lining up for later connection: Viridor and Enfinium waste-to-energy plants, a further hydrogen production plant (developed by EETH), a refinery capture project (developed by Essar), and a direct air capture (DAC) project (developed by Climeworks). These projects have already been identified by the UK authorities for future connection to the Liverpool Bay T&S network, demonstrating the high level of future demand. Future hydrogen T&S infrastructure development is also anticipated, with Cadent (the regional gas distribution company) leading on pipeline transport and Inovyn (an Ineos company) leading on hydrogen storage using re-purposed salt caverns. Specific financing benefits enjoyed by the cluster are summarized in Table 3.Hynet’s innovative financing journey highlights key mechanisms and market/government dynamics required to scale up investment to decarbonize heavy industry. Emissions reduction 10 Mt CO 2e Potential annual capacity from 2030Gross value-add contribution £811 million Annually until 2050Jobs 2,800 Additional jobs from network expansionHyNet North West – overview of impacts FIGURE 6 Source: HyNet North West, Amion Consulting, UK Government.26 From Blueprint to Reality: A Stronger Business Case for Shared Energy Infrastructure 20