Essar Oil UK selects Mitsubishi as technology licensor for carbon capture

Essar Oil UK Limited (EOUK) on Friday said it has selected Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd as technology provider for the development of the required basic engineering design package for its new EET Industrial Carbon Capture facility based at Stanlow, UK.

This is a leading use of carbon capture technology, associated with a fluid catalytic cracker within refineries globally.

"Following a detailed due diligence process, technology provider MHI has been selected for the carbon dioxide capture process section of the plant. Once captured, the carbon dioxide will be permanently sequestered into depleted gas fields under the sea in Liverpool Bay, as part of the HyNet cluster in the North West of England," the company said in a statement.

Essar had announced the proposed construction of the EET Industrial Carbon Capture plant at the Stanlow Refinery in November 2022.

Participating in the Cluster Sequencing Track One Expansion process, the company plans for the facility to be operational in 2028, eliminating an estimated 860,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year - the equivalent of taking 400,000 cars off the road, or more than 40 per cent of all emissions in Stanlow.

The plant is a key part of Essar's overall decarbonisation strategy, and central to its aim to meet its objective of becoming the UK's first low carbon refinery.

The company is investing USD 1.2 billion over the next five years to lower emissions through decarbonising its production processes.

"Essar will achieve its decarbonisation targets through a combination of incremental transformational projects, including energy efficiency and EET Industrial Carbon Capture and, as a result of the significant investments it is making into hydrogen and biofuels, via Essar Energy Transition (EET).

"Ultimately, the company expects to achieve a 75 per cent reduction in emissions by 2030 and be net zero by 2040," it said.

The selection of MHI follows the completion of the pre-FEED phase for EET Industrial Carbon Capture which was delivered by Kent plc earlier this year. Currently being tendered, the FEED phase of the project will begin in Q4 2023.

Deepak Maheshwari, CEO of Essar Oil UK, said: "With the selection of this key technology partner, we are ready to move into the next phase of EET Industrial Carbon Capture.

"This large-scale facility is an essential element of our overall ambition to become the UK's first low carbon refinery, essentially future proofing this key industrial site, protecting jobs and ensuring we continue to play our vital role in the regional and national economy."

MHI has the technology, expertise and proven experience to deliver a decarbonisation project, he said.

Kenji Terasawa, CEO and Head of Engineering Solutions at MHI, said: "Essar has huge ambitions to lead the overall decarbonisation of the North West. EET Industrial Carbon Capture at Stanlow is a significant project which will not only bring considerable benefits to the refinery, but will also make a material contribution to the UK's overall net zero ambitions.