Thursday 6 April 2023

Cleaning up sneezes with green hydrogen?

Tissues, toilet paper and nappies are about to be powered by green hydrogen, not gas.

That’s after Octopus and RES’ joint venture HYRO has partnered with Kimberly-Clark to switch its energy supply at two factories from gas to green hydrogen.

Kimberly-Clark owns brand such as Andrex, Kleenex and Huggies – and will now have electrolysers installed that are powered by solar and wind, as well as hydrogen-ready boilers to cut the carbon footprint of manufacturing.

These two facilities are in Kent and Wales – and will have a combined capacity of 22.5MW, HYRO has said.

HYRO has set a target to invest £3 billion into green hydrogen plants across the UK.

Alex Brierley from Octopus Energy Generation said: “This deal with Kimberly-Clark means well-loved household brands will soon be manufactured with green hydrogen instead of polluting gas.

“For heavy industries unable to electrify, hydrogen produced from home-grown clean energy like wind and solar can be a winning solution. We hope more businesses follow their lead to a future without fossil fuels.”

“Green hydrogen developed and produced using renewable energy in the UK can provide a reliable, cost-competitive source of power for industrial businesses,” RES’ Rachel Ruffle added.

Oriol Margo from Kimberly-Clark stated: “These developments represent a huge step towards our ambition to move solely to renewable energy to manufacture Andrex, Kleenex, Huggies, WypAll and Scott in the UK by 2030.”