Can a hydrogen boom fuel a green recovery for Britain?

The UK has lost its lead in windpower and batteries, but there is one eco fuel that could transform its post-Covid fortunes...

At the entrance to Saltend Chemicals Park, on the outskirts of Hull, there is a small blue heritage-style plaque, placed there four years ago by the Royal Society of Chemistry. It proudly commemorates: 100 years of innovation in supplying the UK with transportation fuels and important base chemicals."

A sense of pride in Saltend's past is understandable: places like this helped drive Britain's industrial age. But the biggest, most dramatic innovation of all may be yet to come. This month, the Norwegian energy company, Equinor, (formerly Statoil), unveiled proposals to install the biggest facility in the world for making hydrogen from natural gas, using capture and storage technology to extract and bury the resulting carbon under the North Sea.