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Two major manufacturers invest in green hydrogen transition in the UK, as hydrogen storage demonstration project publishes findings
30/7/2025
News
Petrochemical producer INEOS and tissue paper manufacturer Kimberly-Clark have made significant investments to convert their UK production facilities from natural gas to green hydrogen. Meanwhile, Exolum reports that a trial at its Immingham terminal has successfully demonstrated how existing energy infrastructure can store hydrogen.
Global chemicals company INEOS reports that it has cut carbon emissions by 75% at its Saltend, Hull, chemical manufacturing site after converting the facility to run on hydrogen instead of natural gas. The emissions reduction is equivalent to removing 160,000 petrol cars from the road, it adds.
The hydrogen used at the Saltend site is produced as a co-product from existing manufacturing processes. It’s a model INEOS believes can be replicated across the industry. The £30mn Hull upgrade is one of several major decarbonisation projects underway across the company’s sites, including Grangemouth in Scotland and Köln in Germany. The company aims to achieve net zero operations in the UK and Europe by 2050.
‘We’re not waiting for 2050; we’re doing it now,’ comments David Brooks, INEOS CEO. ‘Like most chemical businesses in the UK, we are working hard to compete in global markets while facing some of the highest energy and carbon costs in the world.’
Meanwhile, Kimberly-Clark, the company behind household brands Andrex and Kleenex, is planning to invest more than £125mn to switch from the use of natural gas to generate steam for tissue production to green hydrogen at its plants in Cumbria and Kent.
It has signed two long-term supply agreements with the planned Carlton Power 35 MW green hydrogen project in Barrow-in-Furness and the 15 MW Hyro Northfleet green hydrogen project, an Octopus-RES joint venture. Both projects have secured UK government funding through the first hydrogen subsidy scheme – Hydrogen Allocation Round One (HAR1) – but are yet to reach final investment decision. The Barrow plant is planned to be built adjacent to Kimberly-Clark’s Barrow-in-Furnace site and will supply 100 GWh/y of hydrogen, while the Hyro development will be installed at the company’s facility and produce 47 GWh/y.
Deliveries of hydrogen are slated to begin in 2027. The move to green hydrogen is expected cut natural gas consumption by half at both Kimberly-Clark sites, compared to 2024 levels. Carbon emissions will also be reduced by 28,500 t/y, ‘equivalent to removing 20,000 petrol cars from the road’, reports the company.
According to Dan Howell, Vice President and Managing Director, the investment is part of a wider sustainability push by the company, which plans to move its UK operations to 100% renewable energy by 2030.
‘World first’ green hydrogen transport and storage demo
Exolum reports that it has successfully demonstrated how existing energy infrastructure can be used for hydrogen storage.
In late 2024 the energy logistics company started what was reported to be the world’s first demonstration of commercial-scale transport and storage of green hydrogen in existing terminal infrastructure using liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHC) at its terminal in Immingham, the UK’s largest freight port.
LOHCs are organic compounds that can absorb and release hydrogen through chemical reactions and can therefore be used as a means of storing and transporting hydrogen in liquid form.
Exolum has now published the findings of the demonstration project, which suggest that the technology can be integrated into an existing network of fuel pipelines and storage tanks without requiring significant modifications. Technoeconomic analysis also confirms that storing hydrogen in this way can be more cost-effective and practical than geological storage options – such as salt caverns – even when factoring in the costs associated with converting hydrogen to and from LOHCs, according to the company.
The trial involved transporting 400mn litres of LOHC through a 1.3 km pipeline between Exolum’s Immingham East and Immingham West facilities in the Humber region. ‘Laboratory tests confirmed that the quality of the LOHC remained unchanged throughout the entire [three month] process,’ says the company.
According to Exolum, up to 1 TWh of hydrogen could be stored within its existing fuel infrastructure at Immingham, equivalent to around one-third of the UK’s expected hydrogen storage needs by 2030. ‘The beauty of LOHCs is their flexibility – we can provide storage on a seasonal, monthly, weekly or even daily basis,’ says the company.
