Essar selects technology partner for Essar Oil UK's Industrial Carbon Capture facility to reduce CO2 emissions by 1 million tons

2024-05-07 01:11:19 Environment

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Bengaluru, 22 December 2023: Essar Oil UK announces the selection of a second key licensor technology provider, Topsoe, for the planned EET Industrial Carbon Capture ("ICC") facility based at Stanlow, UK. Topsoe will provide its sustainable flue-gas treatment technology SNOXTM.

This is a pivotal step towards Essar Oil UK's $1.2 billion investment in decarbonising the refinery by reducing ~2 million tons of CO2 (95%) emissions, making it the world's first low carbon refinery and a producer of low carbon fuels.

Deepak Maheshwari, CEO of Essar Oil UK, said, "We are ready to move into the next phase of Essar Oil UK's decarbonisation strategy. With an investment of $1.2 billion, Essar Oil UK is positioned to be the world's first low carbon refinery. The industrial carbon capture facility, combined with our upcoming hydrogen fuel switching project, will reduce the refinery's CO2 emissions by 95%. Topsoe is a valuable partner in this endeavour. With Topsoe SNOXâ„¢ technology we are getting a well proven and highly sustainable flue-gas treatment."

Essar's overall decarbonisation strategy plans to reduce refinery emissions with two state-of-the-art projects:

1) Industrial carbon capture (ICC) announced at Stanlow in November 2022, aims to be operational by 2028. The project will result in an annual emissions reduction of ~1 million tons of CO2

2) Hydrogen fuel switching from natural gas to hydrogen as fuel source, resulting in an annual emissions reduction of ~1 million tons of CO2

This puts Essar Oil UK at the forefront of the UK's energy transition by producing the UK's first low carbon fuels, securing the refinery's vital ongoing role in UK energy security and resilience.

With the selection of Topsoe and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Essar Oil UK has identified most of its technology partners and is ready to progress to the front-end engineering design ("FEED") phase of the project. Development of the basic engineering design packages (BEDP) for the licensed technologies is already ongoing.

Elena Scaltritti, CCO at Topsoe, said, "We are thrilled to have been chosen as technology licensor for Essar Oil UK and support them in meeting their decarbonisation targets. The agreement represents a landmark step for Topsoe's development in the United Kingdom, and we look forward to working with Essar on this important project, which is a great example of how the fossil industry can decarbonise itself."

About Essar in the UK

Essar Oil (UK) Ltd 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.

Essar Oil (UK) 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 carbon dioxide emissions.

Industrial carbon capture will deliver an annual emissions reduction of ~1 million tons 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 tons of CO2

This investment ensures the sustainability of this critical national asset, supporting high value employment and UK energy security resilience.

About Topsoe

Topsoe is a leading global provider of technology and solutions for the energy transition. We combat climate change by helping our customers and partners achieve their decarbonisation and emission reduction goals.

Based on decades of scientific research and innovation, we offer world-leading solutions for transforming renewable resources into fuels and chemicals for a sustainable world, and for efficient and low-carbon fuel production and clean air.

We were founded in 1940 and are headquartered in Denmark, with over 2,800 employees serving customers all around the globe.