At EET Fuels, we’re leading the energy transition by performing today, transforming for tomorrow, and delivering the UK’s first low carbon process refinery.
Our people are vital to achieving our ambition, and #redefined showcases the work that they are doing to deliver the fuels our community needs, now and in the future.
Our latest redefined showcase is Tim Shire, Process Engineering & Strategy Manager for Decarbonisation projects.
At EET Fuels, we’re leading the energy transition by performing today, transforming for tomorrow, and delivering the UK’s first low carbon refinery.
This month, we caught up with Tim Shire, decarbonisation projects process engineering and strategy manager. Tim has worked at EET Fuels for 5 years and knows the decarbonisation projects like the back of his hand, so who better to talk to about what a year of progress 2024 will be.
How would you describe your day-to-day role?
At the Stanlow Manufacturing Complex we have three major refinery projects; a hydrogen-ready combined heat and power plant (CHP) to replace our boiler house, fuel switching the refinery to use low carbon hydrogen, starting with the main crude distillation furnace, and carbon capture for the refinery’s fluid catalytic cracker (FCC).
My role is to ensure that the process designs for these projects are appropriate and that all the projects fit well together and integrate with the rest of the refinery.
I consult with lots of external stakeholders, apply for government support for decarbonisation projects, help support the financial and commercial teams to develop the funding for the projects and I represent EET Fuels at external events.
How has your role been redefined to support EET Fuels in reaching its target to reduce its carbon emissions by 95% by 2030?
Previously my focus was on the day-to-day management of energy and monitoring carbon dioxide (CO2), with a medium-term pipeline of small projects. My new role is focused much more on large scale transformation and involves putting emerging technologies to work to achieve our objectives.
What does success look like in your role for 2024?
A key project for the refinery is the long-awaited hydrogen-ready combined heat and power plant (CHP). This is a vital component to deliver our major energy efficiency projects of the future and to meet the future demand for steam and power for the planned carbon capture plant.
We will select our hydrogen-fired gas turbines, secure funding and get the project to Final Investment Decision (FID) in 2024.
We will also get the tie-ins for CHP and the hydrogen-ready crude distillation furnace (CDU4) implemented in 2025.
We will also be working hard to secure support from the UK Government for our industrial carbon capture project. This one project will almost halve our emissions.
As a team, how would you say you are contributing to the UK's energy transition?
The UK’s energy transition faces a “chicken and egg” situation. Industrial users need hydrogen to be available to give them the confidence to invest in new or adapted plant technology, and hydrogen developers need to know there is customer demand before they can commit to building large scale plants.
EET Fuels’ refinery can and will be a customer for EET Hydrogen’s output. This will get the ball rolling and, we hope, kickstart a wave of investment across HyNet, the UK’s leading industrial decarbonisation cluster.
On the technical side, we are answering challenging questions by inventing new answers.
We will have the world’s first 100% hydrogen-fired combined heat and power plant (CHP) and one of the world’s first carbon capture projects applied to a catalytic cracker. This can bring specific challenges and constraints and we are resolving many previously unanswered questions on hydrogen firing.
These findings will set a precedent for how the rest of the UK and, perhaps the world, decarbonises.
In your role, what do you think will be the key areas of focus or challenges in the next three years, and how do you plan to address them?
The decarbonisation projects are moving rapidly from ideas and visions to steel in the ground, and the timeline has moved from ‘sometime in the future’, to being actioned right here, right now.
The devil in the detail is about how this impacts the refinery. Every plant area, and every department and discipline will have to play their part for decarbonisation to become a reality. Being successful, safe, robust and timely in delivering these projects will require contributions from everyone – alongside their day jobs.
We are conscious that many people want to know more about what the decarbonisation projects mean for them. So, a key priority this year is to engage, discuss and learn with our colleagues. We want to share the groundbreaking work we are doing and the progress we are making, both internally and externally to ensure that everyone is pulling in the same direction towards the UK’s energy transition to net zero.
To celebrate this year’s International Women’s Day, we caught up with Betsy-Ann Ward. Betsy-Ann is the crude distillation technologist at EET Fuels. She joined the business seven years ago after graduating with a Masters of Engineering in Chemical Engineering from Cambridge University.
Following an internship, Betsy-Ann began her full-time employment as a graduate technologist for the first three years, starting out on the oil movements team and then the utilities production units. Three and a half years later, she joined the oil distillation and processing team as a chemical engineer or, as it’s known on site, a technologist, and she progressed into her current crude distillation technologist role.
My main responsibility is to ensure that the crude distillation unit performs safely and efficiently. There are challenges and problem solving as part of this, which I really enjoy. It’s a team effort. For example, if a pump is broken on the unit, I work with colleagues from other disciplines including the mechanical and electrical team and the instrumentation engineers to develop a solution. This could include specifying a temporary replacement or procuring a new pump.
I work with operators to maximise the feed rate. Unit optimisation often involves collaboration with the economics, planning and scheduling department (EPS). In essence, we focus on getting the most value out of the unit, which often requires day to day communication with the wider team to constantly find innovative ways of doing this.
Although my role predominately supports the “performing for today” side of things, I have had some exposure to our energy transition projects. For example, the crude distillation unit will benefit from a new higher efficiency furnace that will reduce carbon emissions. This is due to come online next year. I have supported the project team at various stages of the development, providing my unit knowledge. I also supported the refractory dry out process for the new furnace at the end of 2023.
Additionally, I’ve done some work for our HPP2 (hydrogen production plant two) which is part of Hynet. Some off-gas streams will be taken from my process unit for HPP2 so I have been involved by providing the process unit knowledge to support the development of the project.
Maximising crude distillation unit rates, keeping the unit operating efficiently and reliably, processing as much crude oil as possible to maximise profits, optimising product qualities. Safety is a massive part of my role – and everyone’s roles here at EET Fuels. We keep safety at the forefront of everything we do. Everything is properly assessed from an engineering point of view, so keeping everything and everyone safe is a huge success.
We have very strict environmental targets and I monitor the crude distiller every day to make sure we comply. Crude distillation is very energy intensive, so we need to get the most out of energy we’re putting in, focussing on crude pre-heat and minimising excess oxygen.
I have worked with the project team for the new furnace, it hasn’t been commissioned yet, but in preparation, I did some work with the team to help with the furnace dry-out with operational support and monitoring. The idea would be that this time next year when the new furnace is commissioned, it will be my responsibility to look after that furnace from a process technologist perspective.
The wider technology team has also been supporting the various energy transition projects, by providing their process unit expertise to ensure successful project development.
I’m not sure about the next three years just yet, but for the next 18 months we’re working towards the February 2025 turnaround, and then bringing the unit online with the new furnace afterwards.
The turnaround is a big maintenance event, giving us the opportunity to clean and maintain process equipment so that it operates safely, effectively and reliably until the next turnaround. There is a lot of preparation required between now and then, so it will be a huge team effort to get there.
During the turnaround itself, there will be lots of maintenance, inspections and collaboration from everyone, so that everything is managed efficiently and safely – it will be a very intense time with busy shifts.
Afterwards, there will be the challenge to continue to optimise the crude distillation unit pushing its new constraints after we fire up the new furnace.
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In National Apprenticeship Week, we wanted to share James Ellison’s contribution. James began his working career at EET Fuels (formerly Essar Oil UK) as a fresh-faced apprentice.
Five years on, he has worked hard to become a process operator – a highly technical role, which requires, skill, precision and graft to keep the Stanlow Manufacturing Complex safe, online and producing important products for its customers.
It’s a really technical and varied role. As a field operator, I’m based outside on the complex and as a team we work 12-hour shifts in rotation to ensure process operators are always available. I finished my apprenticeship two years ago this March and I was given loads of hands-on experience, doing most of my training on the job, which was brilliant.
Now, along with my colleagues, I monitor all the equipment and prepare for maintenance so the wider team can work safely on the equipment. We respond to any incidents on site, alongside the fire teams, to maintain site safety 24/7. Prior to shutdowns it is our role to safely shutdown equipment and make it safe for work to be completed. Then, following shutdowns, it’s our responsibility to get the machinery back up and running again.
When I think about my day-to-day role, no two days are the same. A lot of tasks take place outside and on a regular day, I would go out and check the equipment, check product samples, take water effluent samples set by the Environment Agency and then deal with whatever the rest of the day brings.
It’s a bit like maintaining a very large car to keep it moving, checking oil levels, maintaining tyre pressures, fuelling the engine. It’s all essential to ensure that we can keep performing today.
How has your role being redefined to support EET Fuels’ in reaching delivering its goal of being the UK’s first low carbon refinery.
When I think of the phrase ‘performing today, transforming for tomorrow’ my role currently sits in the ‘performing today’ category. We need to keep everything moving now, so that we can eventually make the energy transition to net zero.
It’s my job, along with others to keep the units safe so we can run to time and deliver the products our customers need. That said, I started as an apprentice at 16, so I’m only 22 now, and I plan to be working on site in 2030 when we’ve fuel switched to low carbon hydrogen and are using industrial carbon capture to just about eliminate our emissions.
Products are changing all the time – we don’t make some products that we made when I started as an apprentice, so my role will no doubt evolve as we decarbonise.
Put simply, if the equipment is safe, online and making the products our customers need then that’s success.
We need different people with different skill sets within the team to keep things moving. For example, field process operators along with panel operators communicate information effectively so that all required work can be completed safely and successfully.
Eliminating the emissions for the cracker (through industrial carbon capture) is a big part of our plan and my team will have a role to play on achieving that.
Across the business, everyone has an important role to play though, as an apprentice, I had the opportunity to spend time with all of our teams and got a full understanding of how it all fits together, which was incredibly helpful.
In your role, what do you think will be the key areas of focus or challenges in the next three years?
I see myself staying on the cracker, which is a very interesting department within the refinery, and it will be exciting to see the industrial carbon capture plant being built alongside it to capture its emissions.
I would like to learn more units on the cracker and progress to be a panel operator in the next three years. Progression within my department is my ultimate goal.
