Essar to build £360 million carbon capture facility as part of biofuel ambitions

Essar Oil UK plans to build a £360 million (€417 million) major new carbon capture plant at its Stanlow refinery in line with its ambition to become a leading low carbon refinery by 2030.
Essar’s energy transition strategy includes developing green fuels including sustainable aviation fuels and establishing the UK’s largest biofuels storage facility at the site.

Essar is investing over £1 billion (€1.15 billion) into a range of energy efficiency, fuel-switching, and carbon capture initiatives, designed to decarbonise its production processes significantly by 2030 and put Essar at the forefront of the UK’s shift to low carbon energy.

Essar will achieve its decarbonisation targets through a combination of incremental (energy efficiency and operating improvements) and transformational projects, including the capture plant announced today, but also as a result of the significant investments Essar is making into hydrogen and biofuels.

Once complete in 2027, the plant will eliminate an estimated 0.81 million tons of CO2 per year – the equivalent of taking 400,000 cars off the road, eliminating nearly 40% of all Stanlow emissions.

Deepak Maheshwari, CEO of Essar Oil UK said: “This new carbon capture plant is the single biggest initiative to decarbonise our processes and a core element to our hugely ambitious decarbonisation strategy.
“Our ambition is to become a leading low carbon refinery. This is a massive undertaking, but it is a journey we are fully committed to. Not only is it the right environmental thing to do, it will future proof the critical Stanlow refinery for the long term, protecting jobs and industry, while also placing Stanlow at the very centre of the UK’s energy transition.”