Sustainability: Essar Partners with Technology Firm to Cut 1 Million Tons of CO2 at UK Oil Facility

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Bengaluru: 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 SNOX^TM. 

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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 SNOX™ 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.”