UK's EnergyPathways Plans to Build 20,000-Tonne Hydrogen and 60,000-Tonne Graphite Plant

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On September 17, UK-based EnergyPathways signed a cooperation agreement with Finland's Hycamite. The two parties will assess the feasibility of building low-carbon hydrogen and high-quality graphite production facilities at Barrow-in-Furness on the west coast of England in the UK. The project is planned to be located at the Port of Barrow under Associated British Ports, with a planned annual production of 20,000 tonnes of low-carbon hydrogen and approximately 60,000 tonnes of graphite, and will be incorporated into the MESH long-duration energy storage project system that EnergyPathways is currently advancing.

Under the cooperation arrangement, EnergyPathways will assess the technical and commercial feasibility of Hycamite's methane pyrolysis and carbon processing technology in the project. Hycamite's technology produces low-carbon hydrogen through methane pyrolysis while converting the carbon in methane into solid carbon materials, which are further processed into high-quality graphite. The cooperation between the two parties focuses on hydrogen production, solid carbon processing, and graphite product development.

The project is planned to leverage the existing industrial and logistics conditions at the Port of Barrow. EnergyPathways is currently working in parallel with Associated British Ports to assess specific site options for the methane pyrolysis unit and carbon processing facilities at the Port of Barrow. In the future, the project will connect with MESH's energy storage, natural gas, and hydrogen infrastructure.

The MESH project plans to build 300MW/55GWh of long-duration energy storage capacity, with a continuous discharge duration of more than 100 hours, combined with compressed air energy storage, natural gas storage, and hydrogen production systems. EnergyPathways plans to commence MESH-related hydrogen production in 2029–2030 after policy, permitting, and financing conditions are in place.

In addition to hydrogen and graphite, EnergyPathways is also assessing the combination of hydrogen produced by the project with nitrogen to further produce ammonia products for the global fertilizer market. The company also plans to sell high-quality graphite to high-value-added export markets and customers related to the energy transition.

EnergyPathways also plans to apply for funding from the UK government's Critical Minerals Accelerator program to support the graphite production plan. The program mainly supports the commercialization of technologies for the extraction, processing, circulation, and recycling of critical minerals. Graphite has been included in the list of critical raw materials by the UK government and the European Union.

Hycamite has previously completed independent laboratory validation of its natural gas-to-battery-grade graphite. Testing by US-based Polaris Battery Labs shows that Hycamite's graphite material, as a lithium-ion battery anode material, is comparable in capacity performance to commercial battery-grade graphite products. This technology will serve as an important technical basis for the subsequent graphite product pathway of this UK project.