Kimberly-Clark to cut UK natural gas use by 50% from 2027 via green hydrogen at Northfleet and Barrow plants.
£125 million (US$168.9 million) investment supported by UK government Hydrogen Allocation Round One (HAR1).
Projects to reduce CO₂ emissions by 28,500 tonnes annually—equivalent to removing 20,000 petrol cars from UK roads.
Kimberly-Clark, the company behind household staples Andrex® and Kleenex®, is investing over £125 million (US$168.9 million) in green hydrogen infrastructure to decarbonize its UK manufacturing operations. In partnership with Carlton Power and HYRO—a joint venture between Octopus Energy Generation and RES—the company will deploy hydrogen solutions at its Barrow-in-Furness and Northfleet sites.
“This is a significant investment into a green hydrogen solution,” said 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.”
The green hydrogen will replace natural gas used in steam generation processes, enabling a 50% reduction in Kimberly-Clark’s 2024 natural gas consumption across UK production lines starting in 2027. Both facilities together manufacture nearly one billion Andrex toilet rolls and 150 million boxes of Kleenex tissues annually.
The Barrow site will host a hydrogen facility supplying 100 GWh of green hydrogen per year, while Northfleet’s facility will deliver 47 GWh. The switch to green hydrogen is expected to cut carbon emissions by 28,500 tonnes annually—comparable to taking 20,000 petrol-powered cars off UK roads.
“These two hydrogen projects demonstrate how an energy-intensive industry can take the lead and overcome the technical challenge to adopt green hydrogen at scale,” Howell added.
The initiative is bolstered by government support through the Hydrogen Production Business Model and the Net Zero Hydrogen Fund, with both projects selected under the UK’s Hydrogen Allocation Round One (HAR1). Planning consent has been secured: Barrow’s project was approved in June 2023 and Northfleet’s in August 2024.
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Sarah Jones, UK Minister for Industry, stated:
“This government is rolling out hydrogen at scale for the first time, with ten of the first projects now shovel-ready to start powering businesses with clean, homegrown energy from Teesside to Devon. 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.”
This green hydrogen investment complements Kimberly-Clark’s broader sustainability agenda. In 2023, the company signed a power purchase agreement linked to a £75 million onshore wind farm in Scotland. Globally, Kimberly-Clark is targeting a 50% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2030 and continues to grow its renewable energy footprint across Europe and Africa.
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