The Swedish company Essity – a global leading hygiene and health company that manufacturers name brand one-use products, including tissue, toilet rolls and kitchen towels – has secured £2.2 million ($2.8 million) from the UK Government to try using hydrogen power instead of natural gas in its paper product manufacturing process at its Tawd Mill in Skelmersdale.
The paper mill will become the first in the UK to use hydrogen for this purpose.
Essity’s Skelmersdale Tawd mill produces giant roles of paper which are shipped to its other production sites around the UK. These giant roles of paper are then converted into the finished products, such as Plenty kitchen towels and Cushelle toilet rolls.
The trial will involve the existing machine at the Tawd mill. Part of the machine’s drying process powered by natural gas will be switched to hydrogen power to cut down on CO2 emissions. This switch has the potential to lower the CO2 emissions that are currently produced from the paper manufacturing process by 66%.
