Essar selects final technology partner for Essar Oil UK’s Industrial Carbon Capture facility, onboarding all key technology providers

9 January 2024 – Essar Oil UK announces the selection of the final key licensor technology provider, Elessent Clean Technologies’ BELCO® gas cleaning technology for the planned EET Industrial Carbon Capture facility based at Stanlow, UK. 

This is another pivotal step towards Essar Oil UK’s $1.2 billion investments in decarbonising the refinery by reducing ~2 million tons of CO2 (95%) emissions, making it the world’s first low carbon refinery and world’s first low carbon fuel producer.

Deepak Maheshwari, CEO of Essar Oil UK, said: “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 $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% using the BELCO® scrubbing technology. 

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
  • Hydrogen fuel switching involves switching from natural gas and other refinery fuel sources to hydrogen as a fuel, resulting in an annual reduction of ~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. 

With the selection of Elessent Clean Technologies, 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. 

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.”