The site already has a link with Rolls-Royce, producing aviation fuel for the engineer’s testing plant in Derby.
The refinery is run in a joint venture with the Chinese state’s PetroChina.
Ineos wants Grangemouth to produce “net zero” carbon emissions by 2045, in line with the Scottish government’s national target.
As part of those plans they are developing a low carbon hydrogen plant at the site to help feed its industrial processes.
Depending on the process used, producing low carbon hydrogen can require vast amounts of clean electricity.
Power generators can strike a range of agreements with customers, including private wire arrangements in which power plants are directly connected by cables to their customer as well as power purchase agreements where the customer commits to paying for the plant’s output but receives the same electrons through the grid as other plants.
Any arrangement with Ineos is likely to be the latter.
Nicola Sturgeon’s government in Scotland is currently opposed to building new nuclear power stations “using current technologies”.
However, the Scottish government has said it is “aware of increasing interest in the development of new nuclear technologies” such as SMRs, and considers it has a “duty to assess this and all other new technologies”.
Last month, Rolls identified sites at Trawsfynydd and Wylfa in Wales, Sellafield in Cumbria and Oldbury near Bristol as priorities for development of the plants. It says its sites will take up about one tenth of the size of a conventional nuclear generation site.
The potential boost for Rolls-Royce follows a government decision last week to commit an initial £700m towards France’s EDF’s planned next large-scale nuclear power plant in Suffolk.
A spokesman for Rolls-Royce said: “Rolls-Royce SMR is talking to a number of industrial customers who see huge potential in using our UK developed technology to provide affordable, long-term, low carbon electricity, generated from a sustainable source. We do not comment publicly on any commercial discussions.
“In addition to generating low-carbon electricity for the grid, its small footprint and factory-built approach means the Rolls-Royce SMR can be deployed to power, energy intensive industrial processes, including the production of hydrogen and synthetic fuels.”
Ineos did not comment.
