A major Cumbrian employer is building a green hydrogen hub as a test bed to decarbonise its operation across the world.

Kimberly-Clark, which employs around 350 people at its factory in Barrow, signed an agreement with Carlton Power, based in Stokesley, near Middlesbrough, in 2022 to develop a green hydrogen scheme on land opposite its site on the A590.

Green hydrogen is defined as hydrogen which is produced by using electrolysers to take water and separate it into hydrogen and oxygen using renewable electricity.

It is hoped to be in operation by early 2026, with the project successfully passing Round One of the government’s Hydrogen Allocation Round in December. This means the project has been awarded a financial contract from the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero.

The £40m scheme would be the first of its kind in the county and part of Kimberly-Clark’s wider mission to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels at sites across the world.

The site will import renewable electricity from the grid to power an electrolysis plant and produce hydrogen. The project will initially use a 30MW electrolyser, expected to produce approximately 3,000 tonnes of hydrogen every year. Most of this will be used by Kimberly-Clark in Barrow, its largest UK site, which makes products including Andrex and Kleenex.

Oriol Margo, Kimberly-Clark’s EMEA sustainability and transformation leader, says the company has set itself a set of global targets. The Barrow project is part of a wider initiative to decarbonise its whole UK operation.

It has already decarbonised 80 per cent of its electricity supply in the UK through a Power Purchase Agreement with Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust to construct a new onshore wind farm in South Lanarkshire.

The Barrow project will replace the natural gas used by its boilers at the site with hydrogen, representing 30 per cent of its natural gas consumption.

“We have been exploring many different technologies. Decarbonisation will not necessarily be one single technology, but this will reduce Barrow’s dependence on natural gas significantly,” said Oriol.

"As a global multinational, we believe that it doesn’t matter where these efforts take place, as long as they are effective in reducing emissions, so we will go wherever it’s easier where we can make progress.”