Ellesmere Port (England), Aug 15: Essar Oil UK has achieved a new milestone in its ongoing transition to low carbon operations, following the UK government’s decision to shortlist its new hydrogen project and a separate carbon capture project.
The firm’s joint venture with Progressive Energy plans to construct two new low-carbon hydrogen production units at Ellesmere Port, Cheshire with a planned total investment of 1 billion pounds to deliver the hydrogen production hubs.
Hydrogen from Vertex will be used to decarbonize Essar Oil (UK)’s production processes, along with lowering the emissions of other neighboring businesses.
The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy confirmed that the projects had been selected as part of the UK government’s Carbon Capture, Usage, and Storage (CCUS) Cluster Sequencing program, the firm said in a statement.
“The new hydrogen plant will help Essar deliver its goal of producing 3.8GW of low carbon hydrogen by the end of the decade — almost 40 percent of the government’s recently extended target of achieving 10GW by 2030,” it said.
Part of HyNet, the plant is being built by Vertex Hydrogen and will significantly reduce CO2 emissions every year. The project will also create thousands of new jobs in the North West and North Wales.
The installation of industrial carbon capture technology at the Stanlow refinery, which will enable the direct capture of more than 8,00,000 tonnes of CO2 per year, is also shortlisted, the statement said.
