Kimberly-Clark UK & Ireland aims to halve its natural gas consumption at its UK manufacturing sites by 2027.
In an agreement worth £125 million, Kimberly-Clark UK & Ireland, alongside its energy partners Carlton Power and HYRO, is investing in green hydrogen at its two plants in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria and Northfleet, Kent.
These sites produce around one billion Andrex toilet rolls and over 150 million boxes of Kleenex tissues every year.
The Barrow hydrogen project will supply 100GWh of hydrogen per annum while the Northfleet project will supply 47GWh per annum. Collectively, this is expected to reduce carbon emissions by 28,500 tonnes per annum, equivalent to removing approximately 20,000 petrol cars off the road every year.
The projects are both supported by funding from the UK government’s Hydrogen Production Business Model (HPBM) and Net Zero Hydrogen Fund (NZHF).
Dan Howell, Vice President and Managing Director at Kimberly-Clark UK & Ireland said: “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.
“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.”
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