Essar Oil UK (Essar) has announced Elessent Clean Technologies’ BELCO gas cleaning technology as its final key licensor technology provider for the planned EET Industrial Carbon Capture facility based at Stanlow, UK.
The selection marks another key step towards Essar’s £1bn ($1.2bn) investments in decarbonising the refinery by reducing around two million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) (95%) emissions, making it the world’s first low carbon refinery and world’s first low carbon fuel producer.
According to the company, its overall decarbonisation strategy aims to reduce refinery emissions through two projects.
Planned to be operational by 2028, the industrial carbon capture project announced at Stanlow in November 2022 aims to reduce approximately one million tonnes of CO2 per year.
Its fuel switching projects involve switching from natural gas and other refinery fuel sources to hydrogen, also resulting in an annual reduction of around one million tonnes of CO2.
Commenting on its latest step, 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 $1.2bn, Essar Oil UK is positioned to be the world’s first low carbon refinery.”
The selection of ECT represents the onboarding of all Essar’s key technology partners and the development of the basic engineering design packages (BEDP) for the licensed technologies is being progressed.
ECT’s BELCO wet scrubbing technology consists of a spray tower along with a set of filtering modules and a set of droplet separators that are designed to remove coarse particulate matter by impaction.
The sprayed water droplets also provide absorption to reduce SO2 emissions when used in combination with a scrubbing agent.
“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,” said Michael Cherry, Vice President of Refining Technologies at Elessent Clean Technologies.
The £360m ($458m) carbon capture facility is just one part of Essar’s $1.2bn investment plan into a range of decarbonisation initiatives.
According to the company, its energy transition strategy is based on five principles: running the core Stanlow refining processes as efficiently and safely as possible; decarboniing Stanlow’s operations; building a hydrogen future; developing green fuels; and establishing the UK’s largest biofuels storage facility.
source: gasworld.com