Essar Oil (UK) Ltd., Fulcrum to develop SAF project at Stanlow Terminals in North West England

Photo: Essar

Essar Oil (UK) Ltd. has joined forces with Fulcrum BioEnergy and Essar’s subsidiary company Stanlow Terminals to create a new facility that will convert nonrecyclable household waste into sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).

The biorefinery will convert several hundred thousand metric tons of preprocessed waste, which would have otherwise been destined for incineration or landfill, into more than 26 million gallons of low-carbon SAF annually.

The project, which will require an investment of approximately $835 million, will use Fulcrum’s waste-to-fuel process, which is already being deployed at its facility outside of Reno, Nevada, where operations are due to begin later this year.

The development will see Fulcrum, whose parent is based in California, construct, own and operate the plant within Essar’s Stanlow Manufacturing Complex in North West England. This will be the first Fulcrum plant outside the U.S.

Essar will assist with the blending and supply the new SAF to airlines, with Stanlow Terminals Limited providing product storage and logistics solutions for the project under a long-term agreement.

The Fulcrum venture will complement Essar’s wider plans to build a green energy industrial cluster at the Stanlow site. Earlier this year, it announced its participation in production of blue hydrogen under the HyNet project.

The project, which will fully integrate Essar, Stanlow Terminals and Fulcrum assets and technology, is part of a number of innovative solutions at Stanlow designed to cut carbon emissions and contribute to the U.K. government’s 10 Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution. The ambitious plan sets firm foundations to accelerate the U.K.’s path to net zero while transforming the economy, boosting employment and delivering growth.

The Stanlow project, named Fulcrum NorthPoint, will create 800 direct and indirect jobs during the design, build and commissioning process and over 100 permanent jobs during its operation. Plans for Fulcrum NorthPoint are expected to be complete at the end of this year and subject to planning consent, will be operational in late 2025.

This new development promises to lead the way to a cleaner and more sustainable future in North West England and change the way aviation fuel is made to help decarbonize the U.K. By using SAF derived from residual domestic household and commercial waste, greenhouse gas emissions are reduced significantly on a lifecycle basis when compared to fuels produced from conventional crude oil.

Such emission reductions are approximately 70 percent and have the future potential to be fully carbon neutral. In addition, SAF produced at the site offers a 90 percent reduction in particulates, which may benefit local air quality in and around airports.

For Stanlow Terminals, this is a breakthrough deal to provide dedicated tank capacity for the storage and blending of fuel products from Fulcrum NorthPoint. It will also utilize direct pipeline access to pump and transport the SAF to U.K. airports through the Manchester Jet Line and the U.K. Oil Pipeline network.

“This is great news for the North West, with hundreds of jobs created as the region takes the lead in making aviation greener,” said Robert Courts, U.K. aviation minister. “I hope this is a sign of great things to come as we look forward to a sustainable, low carbon future for aviation, helping us push forward towards our 2050 net-zero target.”