Essar Selects Final Technology Partner For UK Industrial Carbon Capture Facility

Essar Oil UK on Tuesday said it has selected the final key licensor technology provider for the planned industrial carbon capture facility based at Stanlow, UK.

Selection of Elessent Clean Technologies' Belco gas cleaning technology "is another pivotal step towards Essar Oil UK's USD 1.2 billion investments in decarbonising the refinery by reducing 2 million tons of CO2 (95 per cent) emissions, making it the world's first low carbon refinery and world's first low carbon fuel producer," the firm said in a statement.

With this, Essar Oil UK has onboarded all its key technology partners and the development of the basic engineering design packages (BEDP) for the licensed technologies is being progressed. This is an essential milestone during the front-end engineering design (FEED) phase of the project.

"It's great to have our final licensor technology provider in place as we move into the next phase of our decarbonisation strategy.

"With an investment of USD 1.2 billion, Essar Oil UK is positioned to be the world's first low-carbon refinery. Elessent Clean Technologies is a valuable partner in our plan to reduce our refinery emissions by 95 per cent using the Belco scrubbing technology," Deepak Maheshwari, CEO of Essar Oil UK, said.

Essar's overall decarbonisation strategy aims to reduce refinery emissions with 2 state-of-the-art projects - industrial carbon capture announced at Stanlow in November 2022 and planned to be operational by 2028 (the project will result in an annual reduction of 1 million tons of CO2), and hydrogen fuel switching involves switching from natural gas and other refinery fuel sources to hydrogen as a fuel, resulting in an annual reduction of about 1 million tons of CO2.

"This investment ensures that Essar Oil UK will continue to operate sustainably, contributing to the North West's economic well-being and playing a crucial role in securing UK energy security and resilience," the statement said.

Michael Cherry, Vice President of Refining Technologies at Elessent Clean Technologies, said: "Together with Essar, we have worked to provide an essential and reliable gas cleaning solution for the carbon capture facility. With our Belco scrubbing technology, we will ensure clean and cool flue gas is delivered."