EET Fuels has reached a milestone in its quest to establish the world’s first low-carbon process refinery by advancing its industrial carbon capture (ICC) project to the front-end engineering design (FEED) stage.
The company, operating under the trading name of Essar Oil (UK) Ltd, announced that Toyo Engineering India Pvt. Ltd. (Toyo-India), a subsidiary of Toyo Engineering Corporation of Japan, has been appointed to oversee this critical phase of the project.
The FEED stage is crucial for the project as it involves finalising the design, mitigating risks and conducting a detailed cost analysis.
This stage’s completion will enable EET Fuels to make a final investment decision (FID) on the ICC project, a step towards achieving its environmental goals.
The ICC project aims to capture approximately one million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year from the Stanlow refinery’s full-residue fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) unit, which is among the largest in Europe. By capturing and sequestering this CO2, the project is expected to eliminate around 45% of Stanlow’s total emissions.
The CO2 captured will be transported through a repurposed gas network and stored permanently in depleted gas fields in Liverpool Bay, as part of the HyNet industrial decarbonisation cluster in North West England.
This initiative aligns with the UK government’s broader efforts under the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero’s Track One expansion programme to support carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) projects.
Deepak Maheshwari, CEO of EET Fuels, spoke on the importance of the ICC project in reducing emissions and securing the future of the Stanlow refinery: “Our ambitious carbon capture and storage plans are a key component of Stanlow, securing the future of the refinery for generations to come and vastly reducing industrial carbon emissions in the North West.
“This announcement represents a significant milestone as we work to become the world’s first low carbon process refinery, and we look forward to working with Toyo-India to keep momentum towards achieving FID for this project.”
The ICC project is expected to be completed by 2028 and is part of EET Fuels’ broader strategy to reduce CO2 emissions at the Stanlow Refinery by 95% by 2030.
This development follows the appointment of Wood to conduct the FEED for EET Fuels’ hydrogen fuel switching project.
