Stanlow Terminal is to set up two facilities at Birkenhead and Ellesmere Port to provide 300,000 cubic metres of biofuels capacity – the biggest in the UK. Tony McDonough reports
Liverpool city region is to be home to the largest biofuels storage hub in the UK under plans unveiled on Monday.
Stanlow Terminals, a subsidiary of oil refinery giant Essar Oil UK, says it will deliver 300,000 cubic metres of biofuels capacity with facilities at the Stanlow Manufacturing Complex in Ellesmere Port and the Tranmere Terminal in Birkenhead within three years.
These facilities will allow customers to store, blend and distribute bio-fuels suitable for use in the energy transition as drop-in replacement transport fuels for road, aviation and marine.
Stanlow Terminals already provides biofuels storage capacity for customers through dedicated supply and delivery infrastructure. This new investment will support the growth of initiatives such as sustainable aviation fuel and sustainable hydrotreated vegetable oil.
It will include waste-based feedstock import facilities, blending and capacity expansion for existing bio-ethanol and bio-methanol. The market for energy from renewable sources in the UK is expanding rapidly, driven by legislative obligations to encourage lower carbon fuels.
Additional storage investment opportunities for low carbon energy products, such as e-fuels, bio-LPG, bio-methane, hydrogen and ammonia are all progressing through feasibility studies.
Earlier this year, Stanlow Terminals joined forces with parent company Essar and Fulcrum BioEnergy to develop a storage facility at Stanlow for sustainable aviation fuel manufactured from non-recyclable household waste. The project will support the aviation industry’s continued reduction of carbon emissions.
Stanlow Terminals is also supporting the UK’s hydrogen economy and the HyNet North West project by developing storage and distribution facilities that will be required for the future to provide a multi modal hydrogen and carbon dioxide transport hub.
Prashant Ruia, Essar non-executive chairman, said: “These key investments, and continued growth of our strategic relationships with customers, means Stanlow Terminals is firmly on track to becoming the largest sustainable storage and logistics hub in the UK.
“The Government has set out a clear plan for decarbonising the economy and we are committed to playing our part in helping to achieve that.”
Stanlow Terminals is the largest independent bulk liquid storage business in the UK, with 3m cubic metres of capacity. Located on the Mersey Estuary within the Port of Liverpool it is a critical piece of national infrastructure.
Essar Oil UK is a leading UK-focused downstream energy company whose main asset is the Stanlow Manufacturing Complex. Stanlow has 800 employees, and is a key strategic national asset, annually producing over 16% of the UK’s road transport fuels.
It is also responsible for more than 700 ships coming in and out of the Mersey every year. Around 140 vessels, carrying up to 170,000 tonnes of crude oil in a single cargo arrive at Tranmere Oil Terminal each year. The oil is then pumped to Stanlow along an eight-mile pipeline.