Essar Energy Transition (EET) has been awarded £2.5 million from the Department for Transport’s Advanced Fuels Fund to develop plans for a production hub for so-called sustainable aviation fuels (SAF). The grant will enable EET to advance to the pre-front-end engineering design (pre-FEED) stage. It is targeting completion of pre-FEED by March 2026, with full FEED commencing in Q2 2026 and Final Investment Decision by the end of 2027.

Essar Energy Transition plans to establish a Methanol-to-Jet (MtJ) production hub capable of producing 200,000 t/yr of SAF, using around 550,000 tpa of e-methanol and bio-methanol sourced domestically in the UK and internationally. The production hub’s location at Stanlow will use the Stanlow Terminals existing import infrastructure
SAF produced at the hub will be supplied across the UK, using infrastructure that already supplies 10 UK airports including Manchester International Airport.
EET says Stanlow’s location allows for future scaling of SAF production as demand grows, with integration opportunities with EET Fuels, Stanlow Terminals, EET Hydrogen and EET Hydrogen Power’s low-carbon initiatives in development at the site.