• BOC has commissioned a facility that captures CO2 from its existing North Tees hydrogen plant, per Energy Voice on 23 October 2026.
• The reported end use is purified CO2 for food and beverage customers, which is a supply product rather than a storage outcome.
• BOC declined to give capture capacity for commercial reasons, so the climate impact cannot be sized from the report.
• The report does not mention geological storage or any link to a wider Teesside CO2 transport and storage network.
• This is analysis of a reported industrial development, not trading or investment advice.

BOC has commissioned a carbon capture facility at its North Tees hydrogen plant, Energy Voice reported on 23 October 2026. The detail that matters is the product: the captured CO2 is purified to food and beverage standards, which makes this a domestic industrial gas supply project rather than a disclosed emissions-storage scheme. Capacity was withheld, so any claim about tonnes avoided would be a guess.

What was actually commissioned

Energy Voice reports that the facility recovers CO2 from BOC's existing hydrogen production plant at North Tees, which opened on 4 March 2002 at a reported cost of £30 million. Linde Engineering is reported to have designed and built the new unit. BOC executive director Jenni Allen is quoted saying reliable CO2 supply is essential to many industries. The report names no customers and gives no start-up date.

Why this is a supply story, not a storage story

The reported end use is purified CO2 for food and beverage applications, with reduced reliance on imports as the stated benefit. Nothing in the Energy Voice report describes pipeline transport or geological storage. A transition claim should be sized against where the molecules end up: CO2 sold into drinks and food processing is typically released again, so the project's value is security of supply, not permanent removal. That distinction is an inference from the report, not a statement by BOC.

The capacity gap and the earlier target

Energy Voice says BOC declined to comment on capacity for commercial reasons. A BOC presentation to a NEPIC conference around 2022 described a Teesside hydrogen CO2 capture project with a target above 200,000 tonnes a year, at due-diligence stage in a government cluster competition. Whether the commissioned plant matches that figure is not confirmed, so the number should be treated as historical context rather than the plant's rating.

What it means and what to watch

UK minister Blair McDougall framed the plant as supporting economic security, food production, healthcare and local jobs, per Energy Voice. The watch items are disclosed capacity, named offtake customers and any connection to a wider Teesside CO2 transport and storage network. Until those appear, this is a credible supply-chain build, not evidence of large-scale hydrogen decarbonisation. This is analysis, not advice.