Pilkington UK Plans To Scale Low Carbon Glass Production Under Pioneering Hydrogen Plans

The new hydrogen plant at Pilkington UK’s Greengate Works site in St Helens would provide the manufacturer with up to seven tonnes of zero-emission hydrogen each day. This would enable the company to eliminate 15,000 tonnes of carbon from its direct emissions each year, paving the way for the expanded production of low-carbon architectural glass for buildings.

Plans to build the hydrogen plant powered by renewable electricity were put forward for public consultation last month (18^th June) ahead of Grenian Hydrogen submitting a planning application this Summer. It aims to start construction at Greengate Works in 2025, and to begin decarbonising Pilkington UK and the surrounding industry by 2027. The project at Pilkington UK is the first that Grenian will submit for planning permission.

Neil Syder, managing director at Pilkington UK, said: “Securing a cost-effective, high-volume supply of green hydrogen at our Greengate site allows us to permanently scale the production of low carbon glass. As an integral supply chain material in 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.

“Our plans to produce green hydrogen on site will provide a blueprint for the decarbonisation of flat glass manufacturing all over the world. 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.”

The plans follow Pilkington UK becoming the first architectural glass manufacturer in the world in 2021 to trial the firing of hydrogen in a glass furnace. Last year, the glass manufacturer also launched architectural glass Pilkington Mirai™, which features 52% less embodied carbon – 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 UK’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 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 sustainability-led alternative assets investment manager – Foresight.  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’s 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.