Hiiroc plans 150,000-tonnes-per-year clean methanol plant using its own turquoise hydrogen

This story was originally published on Hydrogen Insight

UK technology start-up Hiiroc wants to build a new turquoise hydrogen plant in Scotland and integrate it with a brand-new waste-to-energy facility due to be constructed on the same site — as well as facilitating the development of a 150,000 tonnes-per-year e-methanol project that will offtake H₂ and turn it into shipping fuel.

The strategic collaboration between Hiiroc and Aberdeen-based Agile Energy envisages the development of a 30,000 tonnes-per-year turquoise hydrogen plant at Agile’s planned Thainstone Energy Park at a former paper mill near Inverurie, in Aberdeenshire.

The energy park, which already has full planning permission, will comprise a so-called Integrated Resource and Recovery Facility (IRF), which would process up to 200,000 tonnes of municipal and industrial waste into power and heat, with CO₂ captured via an integrated carbon capture facility.

The proposed turquoise hydrogen plant would also be integrated with the IRF as much as possible, “with the option to combine CO₂ emissions from the IRF with Hiiroc’s hydrogen to produce low-carbon methanol, an emerging alternative to diesel in maritime applications”, Hiiroc said in a press release.

Hiiroc has developed a new process of extracting hydrogen from natural gas, without producing CO₂ emissions, called thermal plasma electrolysis that is similar to methane pyrolysis.

While methane pyrolysis heats natural gas to high temperatures in the absence of air to produce hydrogen and solid carbon (instead of CO₂ that is formed when carbon molecules react with oxygen), Hiiroc uses plasma “torches” or flames to generate an electrical field, which when combined with high pressures, splits the hydrocarbon molecules into their constituent parts.

Agile and Hiiroc would seek a strategic partner to deliver the methanol element of the project if the pair wished to go ahead, Hiiroc added.

Located on the site of a former paper mill, the Thainstone Energy Park is also located close to existing gas pipelines.

“By leveraging the existing gas network and locating hydrogen production at the point of use, Hiiroc can deploy at pace, avoiding costly new infrastructure or waiting for new hydrogen pipelines or CCS clusters to come on line,” the company said. “With Hiiroc’s first commercial units planned in 2026, this relationship is a key step in Hiiroc’s mission to decarbonise the economy.”

However, unlike the IRF, the hydrogen and methanol proposals are at a very early stage, with Hiiroc, which is 5%-owned by British utility Centrica, committing only to evaluate the deployment of its novel technology.

Hiiroc told Hydrogen Insight it is undertaking a concept study and system integration assessment, which will inform a more detailed feasibility study in 2026.

Financial close on the Thainstone Energy Park — which includes a 32MW power plant and a 60MW heat plant — is scheduled for Q1 2026, and Agile is currently contracting for long-lead items ahead of construction.

Hiiroc already has a turquoise hydrogen demonstration plant at Centrica’s Brigg peaker plant in Lincolnshire, England, although it is not clear how much H₂ it can produce.

Hydrogen from the facility has been tested in a gas burner at Brigg.