A £120m planning application has been submitted to Kent County Council for what would be the UK's first commercial-scale waste-to-hydrogen facility, with the potential to create up to 400 construction jobs and 100 permanent roles.
The proposal, brought forward by Hydrogen TE (Manston) Ltd, covers a site at Manston, Kent, and would process around 44,000 tonnes of non-recyclable waste annually — including household waste, commercial plastics, timber and decommissioned wind turbine blades.
The facility is designed to produce up to 8,000 tonnes of hydrogen per year for industrial use. The process would also capture carbon dioxide for commercial applications and generate inert aggregate for construction, with the developer claiming all outputs would be reused.
Rebecca Caines, senior director at planning consultancy Lichfields, which led the planning and environmental impact assessment work, said the application represented "an exciting step forward for this pioneering project", adding that it demonstrated "how non-recyclable waste can be managed more sustainably, while supporting the growth of the hydrogen sector."
Michael Engsted, managing director at Hydrogen TE (Manston) Ltd, said the facility had been designed to "create a new route for materials that would otherwise be disposed of, while generating low-carbon fuel for industrial use."
Plans also include an on-site education and innovation centre focused on skills and training in hydrogen and renewable energy.
Plans lodged for UK’s first commercial-scale waste-to-hydrogen plant
