Essar appoints Wood to progress its Hydrogen Fuel Switching Project

27 August 2024

Essar Energy Transition (EET), the trading name of Essar Oil UK, has progressed to the front-end engineering design (FEED) stage of its Hydrogen Fuel Switching project. Hydrogen will be provided by EET Hydrogen, the company’s hydrogen-ready combined heat and power plant (CHP) to be built at its Stanlow refinery.

Image: EET Hydrogen

To conduct this phase of the project, EET Fuels has appointed Wood to coordinate final designs of the fuel system that will feed into the company’s hydrogen-ready crude distiller furnace. Wood will also re-design the core infrastructure and control systems to enable the efficient and safe combustion of hydrogen.

Completion of FEED will enable EET Fuels to take final investment decision (FID) on the hydrogen fuel switching project next year.
The project will enable fuel switching to assets like EET Fuels’ hydrogen-ready crude distiller furnace. This is the first of its kind installed in any UK refinery and is capable of running on 100% hydrogen or a fuel-gas mix. Once the furnace is running on hydrogen from EET Hydrogen’s production plant, it will reduce emissions at the Stanlow Refinery by 0.2 million tonnes per year.

Once hydrogen is available from EET Hydrogen, this will enable the fuel switching of all fired-heaters on site. The progression of this project demonstrates the company’s strong momentum towards achieving its target of reducing CO₂emissions at the Stanlow Refinery by 95% by 2030.

Deepak Maheshwari, CEO, EET Fuels, said: “We have groundbreaking plans for EET Fuels in the UK with the Stanlow Refinery at its heart. Hydrogen Fuel Switching is an integral part of these plans, and conducting the FEED alongside a great partner in Wood will allow us to confidently move forward to final investment decision. 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.”