Barrow Green Hydrogen project: integration and heat system notes for mill engineers
Reviewed by Joe Ashwell
First reported on The Construction Index
30 Second Briefing
Dalkia UK’s Engineering team has secured the Barrow Green Hydrogen project contract in Cumbria for Green Hydrogen Energy Company, supplying low-carbon fuel directly into Kimberly-Clark’s manufacturing operations. The green hydrogen will power production of Kleenex and Andrex paper products, displacing conventional fossil-based energy in tissue and hygiene lines. For industrial energy and infrastructure engineers, the project signals growing demand for hydrogen-ready process heat systems and associated balance-of-plant integration at existing paper mills.
Technical Brief
- Contract scope likely covers electrolyser plant, compression, storage, and hydrogen distribution into existing mill utilities.
- Integration at Barrow-in-Furness must manage hydrogen interfacing with legacy steam and thermal oil systems.
- Dalkia UK Engineering expected to handle process, electrical, controls and CDM coordination as principal contractor.
- Brownfield constraints at an operating tissue mill will drive phased tie-ins and off-line commissioning windows.
- Hydrogen safety zoning, ATEX-rated equipment and revised DSEAR assessments will be central to design.
- Kimberly-Clark’s continuous process lines require high-availability hydrogen supply and redundancy in critical plant.
- Project provides a reference case for hydrogen retrofits in heat-intensive paper and board manufacturing.
Our Take
Green hydrogen appears only in several keyword-matched pieces across our infrastructure coverage, so the Barrow Green Hydrogen project in Cumbria positions Kimberly-Clark and Dalkia UK among a relatively small cohort of early industrial offtakers in the United Kingdom.
For a tissue manufacturer like Kimberly-Clark, sourcing green hydrogen at Barrow is likely to target high-temperature process heat and steam, which are harder to decarbonise than grid electricity and therefore offer a larger marginal emissions reduction per unit of fuel switched.
Dalkia UK's role on this project suggests that UK-based energy service companies are moving beyond efficiency and CHP contracts into direct involvement with green hydrogen infrastructure, which could give them a strategic foothold as more industrial sites seek fuel-switching options.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
Related Articles
Related Industries & Products
Construction
Quality control software for construction companies with material testing, batch tracking, and compliance management.
Mining
Geotechnical software solutions for mining operations including CMRR analysis, hydrogeological testing, and data management.
QCDB-io
Comprehensive quality control database for manufacturing, tunnelling, and civil construction with UCS testing, PSD analysis, and grout mix design management.