Hydrogen Utopia signs option for plastic to hydrogen site in Ireland

Hydrogen Utopia International PLC (HUI) said it has now agreed and entered into an option to lease a 2.5-acre greenfield site in the 78-acre Fisherstown Energy Park, County Longford, Ireland.

Fishertown is expected to be HUI’s first operational full-scale waste plastic-to-hydrogen facility in the European Union. Longford is tipped to be a prime beneficiary of the EU Just Transition Fund in Ireland, which will provide €169mln of funding for the Irish Midlands.

Fisherstown Energy Park already has its own electrical grid connection, an electrical substation and the potential to utilise the existing wastewater treatment facilities on site, said HUI.

Planning permission has been granted to build a solar farm on the site with planning approval also recently received for a stationary battery energy storage facility. Terms of the option give HUI’s Irish subsidiary up to three years to acquire a 25-year lease of the site.

In a statement, Guy Peters said: “I am delighted that we have now finalised the real estate arrangements for the Longford site. We are now working hard to move the planning and permitting of the site forward as rapidly as possible.

“Ireland is a very attractive EU country in which to pioneer our first European waste plastic to hydrogen plant.”