NSG Group Plans Pioneering Hydrogen Plant in UK

The new hydrogen plant at Pilkington UK’s Greengate Works site in St Helens would provide the furnace of the site 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 ahead of Grenian Hydrogen submitting a planning application this Summer. It aims to start construction at Greengate Works in 2025 should the project be awarded funding under UK Governments Hydrogen Allocation Round 2 (HAR2), 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 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.

“Our plans to produce green hydrogen on site will provide a blueprint for the decarbonization 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.”

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.”

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.

Greengate site is also 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.

NSG Group has set a target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2030 compared to 2018 levels through an approved Science Based Target. At the same time, we aim to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. This project is part of our efforts to achieve the target. Through these initiatives, NSG Group will accelerate the activities toward the decarbonization of our business and strive to realize a sustainable society.