Essar plans for Stanlow refinery to run solely on hydrogen

STANLOW refinery could operate solely on hydrogen in the near future as Essar moves ahead with design works for the facility’s fuel switching process.

Essar’s subsidiary EET Fuels has tasked engineering firm Wood with the front-end engineering design (FEED) works for its Hydrogen Fuel Switching project.

The project will involve the re-design of Stanlow’s crude distiller furnace to facilitate the combustion of hydrogen, which will be supplied by sister company EET Hydrogen.

EET Fuels acquired Stanlow, which sits in Ellesmere Port in Cheshire, in 2011 and plans to revamp it into the “UK’s first low carbon process refinery.”

Stanlow is one of several projects that are part of the UK’s £17.7bn (US$23.4bn) HyNet CCS cluster, and will be the main source for the region’s hydrogen demand.

Stanlow CO2 efficiency

Operating since the 1920s, Stanlow processes up to 9m t/y of crude oil and supplies 16% of all road transport fuels in the UK.

It also produces around 2m t/y of CO2, making it the biggest emitter in the North West region.

EET Fuels has planned several low carbon projects at the site, including HPP1, a hydrogen production plant set to go live in 2027 that will produce around 350 MW of hydrogen.

A larger HPP2 plant is also in the pipeline, with EET expecting it to produce 1 GW of hydrogen – enough to power the entire city of Liverpool.

The power generated by HPP2 will be used to facilitate Stanlow’s fuel switching process, which will be able to run on either hydrogen, or a fuel-gas mix. Once in operation, fuel-switching will be enabled on all fired-heaters on site.

EET Fuels expect Stanlow’s emissions to drop by 200,000 t/y, feeding into the company’s larger goal of reducing the refinery’s emissions by 95% by 2030.

Deepak Maheshwari, CEO of EET Fuels, said: “We remain on track to become the world’s first low carbon process refinery, providing security of fuel supply to the UK, as well as building and maintaining employment in the UK’s industrial heartlands.”

EET Fuels expect the fuel switching project to reach its final investment decision (FID) next year.