EET Fuels installs £45m hydrogen-ready furnace at Stanlow oil refinery close to the River Mersey in its bid to become the ‘world’s first decarbonised refinery’. Tony McDonough reports

EET Fuels has made a big step in turning the Stanlow oil refinery in Ellesmere Port into  the ‘world’s first decarbonised refinery’ with the installation of a hydrogen-ready furnace.

It took delivery of the £45m furnace in August 2022 and its is now fully operational. It will use conventional fuel until 2028 when it will switch to using hydrogen produced by the multi-billion pound HyNet hub also on the Stanlow site.

Furnaces are essential to an oil refinery. The process of refining crude oil means it has to be heated to around 470 degrees celsius. Stanlow’s ‘catcracker’ furnace alone accounts for almost half of the refinery’s 2m annual CO2 emissions.

Stanlow, close to the River Mersey, is the UK’s second-biggest oil refinery and supplies 16% of the UK’s road fuels as well as jet fuel for multiple airports. It accounts for almost 700 tanker vessels sailing in and out of the Mersey each year.

HyNet, a consortium of which EET is a partner, has secured a share of £22bn from the Government over 25 years to build and operate a hydrogen production and carbon capture plant at Stanlow.

Hydrogen will be produced by burning natural gas and supplied as ‘clean energy’ to factories across the North West.

But instead of being released into the atmosphere and contributing to global warming, the CO2 that is emitted will be captured, stored and then sent by pipeline to Liverpool Bay where it will be stored indefinitely in porous rock in depleted gas fields.

This method of production is known as ‘blue hydrogen’. Critics claim carbon capture and storage (CCS) is unlikely to work at this scale and will not achieve the 95% capture rate required to meet stringent Government rules.

They say it is just a ruse to prolong the use of fossil fuels. However, HyNet insists the project will produce clean energy when it is switched on in 2027.

Last week another partner, Italian energy giant Eni, confirmed it had secured £2bn from the Government to build the carbon capture and storage element. Once operational HyNet will supply hydrogen to more than 30 factories across the North West.

Installation of this hydrogen-ready furnace significantly progresses EET Fuels’ ambition to eliminate 95% of its carbon emissions by 2030.

It says it will improve the Stanlow site’s air quality, significantly reducing NOX emissions, and its energy efficiency, reducing the refinery’s annual CO2 emissions by around 16,600 tonnes when using conventional ROG fuel, and 200,000 tons when fuelled by hydrogen.

This new furnace consumes around 10% of Stanlow refinery’s total energy usage and will replace three existing furnaces.

READ MORE: HyNet hydrogen & CCS… everything you need to know

Deepak Maheshwari, chief executive of EET Fuels, said: “Decommissioning three old furnaces and connecting this new highly efficient hydrogen-ready furnace to our refinery is a significant milestone for EET Fuels.

“Not only will the new furnace deliver an immediate reduction in CO2 emissions, it will deliver an even bigger reduction once fully powered with low carbon hydrogen. It’s a major milestone in the delivery on our decarbonisation strategy.”