Pilkington UK has unveiled plans for a large-scale hydrogen production plant at its Merseyside base to provide green energy for manufacturing low carbon glass in a move described by the company as a blueprint for decarbonising glass manufacture all over the world.
The manufacturer, working with Grenian Hydrogen, aims to be producing up to seven tonnes of hydrogen a day by 2027, allowing the company to eliminate 15,000tonnes of carbon from its direct emissions every year.
Plans to build the hydrogen plant powered by renewable electricity were put forward for public consultation last month ahead of Grenian Hydrogen submitting a planning application this summer.
It aims to start construction at Greengate Works next year and to begin decarbonising Pilkington and the surrounding industry by 2027. The Pilkington element of the plan is the first that Grenian will submit for planning permission.
Pilkington UK managing director Neil Syder said: “Our plans to produce green hydrogen on site will provide a blueprint for the decarbonisation of flat glass manufacturing all over the world.
“As an integral supply chain material into the built environment, this represents an important cornerstone in the delivery of carbon free buildings – by enabling the specification of low carbon glass to become more routine for architects and specifiers.
“It will permanently remove 15,000 tonnes of carbon emissions from our production each year and be a major step forward in meeting our Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) certified targets for achieving carbon neutrality.
“The initiative will also help us to deliver our vision to ‘makechange’by transforming our processes and by delivering the low carbon building products that will define the pace of decarbonisation in the built environment.”
Pilkington UK became the first architectural glass manufacturer in the world in 2021 when it trialled the firing of hydrogen in a glass furnace. Last year, the glass manufacturer also launched Pilkington Mirai https://www.the-glazine.com/?p=10672 . Created in collaboration with the Glass Futures organisation, Mirai features 52% less embodied carbon and is certified as the lowest carbon glass product of its kind.
Grenian CEO Adam Baddeley said: “Grenian is delighted to be progressing our green hydrogen project at Pilkington’s Greengate Works plant. This builds upon a commercial-scale demonstration in 2021, which showed that the plant could operate safely on hydrogen, and we are now in a Government process to secure 15-year revenue support to enable us to build the plant and to start operating in 2027.
“Pilkington UK is a major energy user and switching some of this to green hydrogen will result in a material reduction in CO2 emissions from Greengate Works. The project marks an exciting point in Liverpool City Region’s journey to create sustainable energy solutions – with St Helens leading the way.”
Grenian Hydrogen comprises Progressive Energy, a low carbon energy project developer; Statkraft ,Europe’s largest generator of renewable energy; and Foresight, a sustainability-led alternative assets investment manager. The consortium is developing a suite of low carbon (‘green’) hydrogen production plants across the North West of England and North Wales.
The plans are revealed as Pilkington UK undertakes one of the biggest investment projects at its Greengate site in decades. It is upgrading its glass furnace at the site to accommodate additional production moved from its neighbouring Watson Street site. Operating one furnace in the town, rather than two, will save 15,000 tonnes of CO2 each year.
