Wienerberger UK & Ireland said it has secured UK government-backed funding that will enable a hydrogen kiln project at its brickworks in Denton, Greater Manchester, to proceed.
The firm said this marks a major step towards the decarbonisation of the UK’s heavy clay manufacturing industry.
Backed through the UK Government’s Industrial Energy Transformation Fund (IEFT), the funding will part-support a £6 million conversion programme that will transform the site’s existing natural gasfired brick kilns to run on 100% green hydrogen.
This breakthrough will make Denton the first commercial scale hydrogen fired brick plant in the world, establishing Wienerberger as a pioneer of low carbon industrial heat innovation.
Hydrogen firing has been identified by the UK Government as a promising long term solution for high temperature industrial processes.
Denton brickworks now stand as the flagship deployment for the UK ceramics sector, providing a replicable blueprint for future decarbonisation across Wienerberger’s wider manufacturing network.
The project includes the retrofit of two tunnel kilns – replacing 224 natural gas-powered burners, installing new hydrogen supply infrastructure, and upgrading electrical and control systems – without altering the structural integrity of the existing kilns.
Linked to the Hydrogen Allocation Rounds (HAR) funding scheme, hydrogen will be supplied under a 15 year Hydrogen Supply Agreement with Trafford Green Hydrogen, jointly developed by Carlton Power and Schroders Greencoat.
Deliveries will be made via tube trailers to a dedicated onsite hydrogen offloading and pressure reduction station.
The target is for one kiln to be fully operational, or both kilns partially converted, to hydrogen firing by Autumn 2027. The complete transition to 100% hydrogen firing across the entire site is scheduled to commence in Autumn 2028.
Once fully operational, the switch from natural gas to green hydrogen is expected to reduce CO₂ emissions at the Denton brickworks by over 11,600 tonnes per year, equivalent to a 9% reduction in Wienerberger Limited’s annual Scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions.
This investment supports Wienerberger’s longterm strategy to reach net zero carbon emissions and helps to meet rising demand for low carbon building materials across the UK. This emissions reduction is equivalent to heating 4,957 UK homes for a year.