- EET Fuels continues its strong decarbonisation momentum, progressing to the front-end engineering design (FEED) stage for its Hydrogen Fuel Switching project.
- Wood has been appointed to carry out the project’s FEED package.
- Completion of FEED will enable EET Fuels to take final investment decision (FID) on the project – expected in 2025.
Stanlow, 27 August 2024: EET Fuels (or “the Company”, the trading name of Essar Oil UK), which plans to create the world’s leading low carbon process refinery, has progressed to the front-end engineering design (FEED) stage of its Hydrogen Fuel Switching project. Hydrogen will be provided by EET Hydrogen, the Company’s co-located Track One low carbon hydrogen production company.
To conduct this phase of the project, EET Fuels has appointed Wood, a global leader in consulting and engineering, to coordinate final designs of the fuel system that will feed into the company’s hydrogen-ready crude distiller furnace. Wood will also re-design the core infrastructure and control systems to enable the efficient and safe combustion of hydrogen.
Completion of FEED will enable EET Fuels to take final investment decision (FID) on the hydrogen fuel switching project next year.
The project will enable fuel switching to assets like EET Fuels’ hydrogen-ready crude distiller furnace. This is the first of its kind installed in any UK refinery and is capable of running on 100% hydrogen or a fuel-gas mix. Once the furnace is running on hydrogen from EET Hydrogen’s production plant, it will reduce emissions at the Stanlow Refinery by 0.2 million tonnes per year.
Once hydrogen is available from EET Hydrogen, this will enable the fuel switching of all fired-heaters on site.
The progression of this project demonstrates the company’s strong momentum towards achieving its target of reducing CO2 emissions at the Stanlow Refinery by 95% by 2030.
Deepak Maheshwari, CEO, EET Fuels, said:
“We have groundbreaking plans for EET Fuels in the UK with the Stanlow Refinery at its heart. Hydrogen Fuel Switching is an integral part of these plans, and conducting the FEED alongside a great partner in Wood will allow us to confidently move forward to final investment decision. We remain on track to become the world’s first low carbon process refinery, providing security of fuel supply to the UK, as well as building and maintaining employment in the UK’s industrial heartlands.”
Martin Simmonite, Senior Vice President for UK Operations at Wood, added:
“We are delighted to be working on this decarbonisation project with EET Fuels, providing critical infrastructure that is fundamental to the energy transition and UK energy security.”
Ends
Media contacts
Peter Ogden, Sodali & Co:
peter.ogden@sodali.com / 07793 858211
Michelle Lewis, Corporate Affairs Director, Essar:
michelle.lewis@essaroil.co.uk / 07805 854169
NOTES TO EDITORS
About EET Fuels
EET Fuels is committed to playing a key role in the decarbonisation of the UK economy, with ambitious plans to build an energy transition cluster in the North West of England.
EET Fuels is transforming for tomorrow and is committed to becoming the UK’s first low-carbon refinery at the heart of HyNet, the UK’s leading industrial decarbonisation cluster. It is investing $1.2 billion over the next five years to decarbonise its operations and targeting a 95% cut in emissions by 2030 through energy efficiency, carbon capture and fuel switching. This will deliver 12.5% reduction the North West’s overall regional carbon emissions.
Industrial carbon capture will deliver an annual emissions reduction of ~1 million tonnes of CO2 and hydrogen fuel switching from natural gas to EET Hydrogen low carbon hydrogen as a fuel source will deliver an additional annual emissions reduction of ~1 million tonnes of CO2.
This investment ensures the sustainability of this critical national asset, supporting high value employment and UK energy security resilience.
The Stanlow Refinery is one of the UK’s largest and most complex refineries, processing approximately 10 million tonnes of crude oil each year. It supplies a significant portion of the UK’s road transport fuels, including petrol, diesel, and jet fuel. Additionally, Stanlow plays a crucial role in Britain’s petrochemical industry by providing essential feedstocks.
About Hydrogen Fuel Switching
- EET Fuels is undertaking a massive fuel switching strategy, with the plan to use hydrogen (produced on site as part of EET Hydrogen) to replace its existing fuel source – natural gas and refinery off-gas.
- EET Fuels has already installed the UK’s first hydrogen ready furnace and will retrofit the other furnaces on site which are used to generate the heat required for the refining process.
- Wood has been appointed to conduct the FEED phase. A part of this will be the final designs of the fuel system feed into the furnace burners, as well as the re-design of the core infrastructure and control systems to enable the efficient and safe combustion of hydrogen. FEED will enable FID which is expected in 2025.