Kimberly-Clark, home to personal care brands such as Kleenex and Andrex, has partnered with HYRO and Carlton Power to invest £125 million into a long-term hydrogen supply agreement in the UK.
The move, which supports Kimberly-Clark’s emissions reduction efforts, will lower the company’s natural gas consumption by 50% at its manufacturing sites in Kent and Cumbria from 2027.
‘Significant investment’
“This is a significant investment into a green hydrogen solution, and alongside other investments that support our ambition to move our UK manufacturing operations to 100% renewable energy by 2030,” commented Dan Howell, vice president and managing director at Kimberly-Clark UK & Ireland. “Now is the right time for us to tap into hydrogen’s significant potential, improving energy supply and our decarbonisation needs.
“We are delighted to be the first UK consumer goods manufacturer to really embrace green hydrogen, showing that an energy intensive industry can take the lead and overcome the technical challenge and adopt green hydrogen at scale. This initiative builds on the investments and progress we’ve already made with innovative technologies for our business, our consumers and our customers.”
Site development
Hydrogen production facilities are set to be developed at Kimberly-Clark’s sites in Barrow-in-Furness and Northfleet, which together manufacture almost one billion rolls of Andrex toilet paper and over 150 million boxes of Kleenex tissues annually.
The Barrow-in-Furness facility will generate 100 GWh of hydrogen per year, while the Northfleet site will produce 47 GWh. The two projects are being supported with funding from the UK government, having been selected for the Hydrogen Production Business Model (HPBM) and Net Zero Hydrogen Fund (NZHF), part of the government’s Hydrogen Allocation Round One programme.
“Hydrogen will help us cut industrial emissions and support Britain’s industrial renewal by creating thousands of jobs in our industrial heartlands as part of the Plan for Change,” commented Sarah Jones, UK minister for industry.
The hydrogen investment is in line with Kimberly-Clark’s global sustainability target to cut absolute Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030, using 2015 as a baseline. Once the hydrogen facilities are online in 2027, operational emissions in the UK will be reduced by more than 80%, it noted. Read more here.
