News

Ambitious low carbon investments

The UK Petroleum Industry Association (UKPIA) has welcomed the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) funding towards hydrogen projects at Essar’s Stanlow oil refinery and a renewable hydrogen Gigastack project which involves the Humber refinery.
ESSAR
Funding of £13 million has been awarded to the HyNet consortium, of which Essar Oil UK is a member.  Plans include the development of a Low Carbon Hydrogen Plant at the Stanlow refinery. This will produce 3TWh of low carbon hydrogen whilst also pioneering carbon capture storage (CCS) technology to capture and store over 95% of carbon used in the process. The funding will also support a front-end engineering design (FEED) study for a new hydrogen-fired combined heat and power (CHP) at Stanlow.
“The HyNet project is one of the most ambitious low-carbon industrial cluster initiatives in Europe,” said Stephen Marcos Jones, UKPIA’s director-general.
“As well as showing more broadly how the downstream oil sector is vital to the UK’s ambitions to reach ‘Net Zero’ emissions by 2050, this really demonstrates just how critical the refinery is to the success of these efforts to decarbonise the economy of the north west of England.
PHILLIPS 66
Working in partnership with offshore wind company Ørsted, hydrogen producers ITM Power and with funding from BEIS, the Gigastack project will allow the Phillips 66 refinery site to utilise ‘green hydrogen’ produced from renewable energy in its operations and processes.
“This project illustrates the potential outlined in UKPIA’s recently published ‘Future Vision’ report,” said Stephen Marcos Jones.
“The project demonstrates the major role the UK’s downstream oil sector can play in the low-carbon energy transition. Working with renewable energy companies and in cooperation with government, this investment in ‘green hydrogen’ is an indication of how UK refineries can be world-leaders in decarbonising their manufacturing operations.
“Downstream oil companies such as Essar Oil UK and Phillips 66 have the experience, engineering expertise and business acumen necessary to make the transition to a low-carbon future a reality for the benefit of both industry and wider society.”