Reported to be the third-largest food and beverage company in North America and the fifth-largest in the world, Kraft Heinz has signed an agreement with Carlton Power to study the potential development of a renewable green hydrogen plant at its Kitt Green manufacturing plant in Wigan, Greater Manchester.  

Kitt Green is one of the largest food processing plants in Europe, producing 250,000 tonnes of food annually and employing approximately 850 people.

The proposed 20 MW Kitt green hydrogen plant, the first to be taken forward by Kraft Heinz globally, could meet more than 50% of the plant’s annual natural gas demand and reduce the plant’s carbon emissions by 16,000 t/y. The hydrogen would be produced by an electrolyser using electricity generated primarily by wind and solar power.

Commenting on the news, Jojo Lins De Noronha, President, Northern Europe, Kraft Heinz Company, 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 £40mn Carlton/Kraft Heinz renewable hydrogen scheme is targeted 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 launched to support UK industry’s switch to hydrogen and encourage growth of the hydrogen economy across the country.

The green hydrogen scheme will be Carlton Power’s third to be developed in the north-west of England, the others being at Trafford in Greater Manchester, which received planning consent in 2021 and is the location of what will be one of the world’s largest battery energy storage schemes; and at Barrow-in-Furness, South Cumbria, which received consent in June 2023. In December 2023, these two projects, as well as Carlton’s Langage scheme near Plymouth, Devon, secured financial support through the government’s Hydrogen Allocation Round 1 (HAR1). The company is also developing a green hydrogen scheme in Stirling, Scotland.

UK’s first industrial scale plant for low-carbon hydrogen

Meanwhile, in other news, what is claimed will be the UK’s first industrial-scale plant for low-carbon hydrogen production is to be constructed at the Stanlow refinery in Cheshire. The refinery, which accounts for a significant portion of the country’s diesel, petrol and aviation fuel, will utilise hydrogen to generate heat and provide power for its fuel production processes while capturing and storing 600,000 t/y of CO₂.