Oil giant Essar moves a step closer to building a sustainable aviation fuel facility at its giant Stanlow refinery close to River Mersey that will supply 200,000 tonnes of fuel to airlines a year. Tony McDonough reports
Oil giant Essar (trading as EET) will supply 200,000 tonnes of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) to airlines a year from a new facility in Ellesmere Port.
EET has successfully completed the engineering design for its SAF hub which will be located at the giant Stanlow refinery close to River Mersey. It already supplies conventional jet fuel to 10 UK airports including Liverpool and Manchester.
SAF is jet fuel produced from a variety of sources including household waste, used cooking oil as well as forestry and agricultural waste. Because it is a ‘drop-in fuel’ it means it can be blended with conventional jet fuel without any modifications.
At Stanlow EET will produce the fuel from ethanol as part of what it called the Stanlow Methanol to Jet (MtJ) project.
Powering aircraft is one of the big conundrums of the push towards cutting CO2 emissions. A commercial airliner requires significant power to take off and travel long distances.
It is claimed SAF can reduce emissions by up to 80% compared to conventional jet fuel although critics say it simply shifts some of those emissions to other parts of the supply chain. SAF is also more expensive.
EET has secured £2.5m from the Government’s Advanced Fuel Fund to take the project forward. The next step is to start technical and commercial evaluations of the project, addressing critical aspects.
These include site selection, MtJ technology readiness, integration with refinery facilities, carbon intensity performance and environmental compliance.
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Ruth Herbert, managing director and chief business development officer at EET, said: “By embedding advanced SAF production directly within a large-scale refinery system, with existing blending, logistics and offtake in place, we have fundamentally reduced risk, cost and complexity.
“As the UK moves from ambition to obligation under the SAF Mandate, projects that can deliver reliably, competitively and at scale will matter most, and Stanlow MtJ has been deliberately designed to do exactly that.”