The Kraft Heinz Co. has signed an agreement with Carlton Power to study the development of a renewable green hydrogen plant at its Kitt Green manufacturing plant in Wigan, Greater Manchester, UK.

The proposed 20MW Kit Green hydrogen plant will meet more than 50% of the plant’s annual natural gas demand and reduce the plant’s carbon emissions by 16,000T/yr.  The hydrogen will be produced by an electrolyzer using electricity generated from sources of renewable energy, primarily wind and solar power.

Eric Adams, hydrogen projects director at Carlton Power, says, “We’re delighted to be working with Kraft Heinz to bring forward a green hydrogen facility at Kitt Green to help the company accelerate its efforts to decarbonize their operations. It is critical that projects like this are brought forward to support British companies, especially in manufacturing in reducing their carbon emissions and reaching Net Zero.”

Jojo Lins De Noronha, president, northern Europe, The Kraft Heinz Co., says, “Our agreement with Carlton Power is an important step forward in our efforts to reduce carbon emissions and achieve our global goal of net-zero emissions by 2050, with a 50% reduction in emissions by 2030. We’re excited to partner together to develop our first, renewable hydrogen energy project globally and hope to see more projects like these in the future.”

Subject to planning approval and financing, the Carlton/Kraft renewable hydrogen scheme is earmarked to enter operation in 2026. Its construction will be contingent on securing financial support from the UK government’s second Hydrogen Allocation Round (HAR2) of the Hydrogen Production Business Model (HPBM), which the government has launched to support UK industry’s switch to hydrogen and encourage growth of the hydrogen economy across the county.

During the next 12 to 18 months, Kraft Heinz and Carlton Power will seek to obtain planning permission for the scheme. In parallel, the two companies will work together to obtain grant funding an operational financial support from the UK Department of Energy Supply and Net Zero (DESNZ) with a target to deliver hydrogen to Kitt Green in 2026/27. A submission to DESNZ will be made this year (via HAR2), following consultations with local and national stakeholders.

The  green hydrogen scheme is Carlton Power’s third to be developed in the North West of England and its second in the Greater Manchester region, the others being at Trafford in Greater Manchester, which received planning consent in 2021 and at Barrow-in-Furness (South Cumbria), which was consented in June 2023. In December 2023, these two projects (as well as Carlton’s Language scheme near Plymouth, Devon) secured financial support through the government’s Hydrogen Allocation Round 1 (HAR1).

In 2021, Kraft Heinz announced its goal to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions across its operational footprint and entire global supply chain by 2050.