Essar Energy Transition has completed pre-FEED engineering on its planned Stanlow methanol-to-jet sustainable aviation fuel hub, the company announced May 18, with sized output of more than 200,000 tonnes per year of advanced SAF from approximately 550,000 tonnes per year of renewable e-methanol and biomethanol feedstock. SAF from the Stanlow hub would blend with conventional jet volumes flowing through EET Fuels, the Essar group’s refining arm. Engineering firm Genesis served as the pre-FEED contractor. FEED is targeted later in 2026, and final investment decision for the start of 2028.
For UK SAF, the binding constraint is not announced megaprojects but project finance. Stanlow combines existing refinery integration, which lowers capex and de-risks utilities, with pipeline connectivity to UK airports through the UK’s jet fuel pipeline network, and a clear regulatory wrapper through the UK SAF Mandate, which requires 2 percent SAF in 2025, 10 percent by 2030 and 22 percent by 2040, with a power-to-liquid sub-target of 0.5 percent in 2030 rising to 3.5 percent by 2040. The proposed UK SAF Revenue Certainty Mechanism (RCM) is the policy instrument designed to give SAF projects bankable revenue certainty so construction lenders can underwrite. Its current design is a contract-for-difference-style two-way settlement against a guaranteed strike price, not a one-sided price floor. Essar Energy Transition has signalled the Stanlow project will target the RCM process. The more interesting questions are at what strike price and what allocation cap.
A fully integrated, delivery-ready solution built for scale.
The phrase, from Ruth Herbert, Managing Director and Chief Business Development Officer of Essar Energy Transition, sets the project’s positioning argument: cost benefit from direct refinery embedding rather than a greenfield site. Pre-FEED confirmed Stanlow can accommodate the facility requirements, identified no material barriers to permitting and consenting, and noted strong interest in renewable methanol supply. The pre-FEED phase was part-funded with up to £2.5 million from the UK Government’s Department for Transport Advanced Fuel Fund (AFF) third window.
Methanol-to-jet’s commercial-scale economics are still being established globally. Metafuels in Switzerland is developing a first commercial plant in Rotterdam at smaller scale. Most US e-SAF developers — HIF Global, Infinium, Dimensional Energy — route through Fischer-Tropsch rather than methanol-to-jet, so the dedicated MtJ developer pool internationally is small. Worth being precise on the SAF product: methanol-to-jet is not currently an approved annex within ASTM D7566; balloting is in progress within ASTM D02, with industry expectations of approval in the 2026-2027 window. Until that approval lands, MtJ SAF is not eligible for commercial uplift as a Jet A or A-1 blend component under D7566.
FEED in 2026, FID at the start of 2028, with operational start downstream of that. The two gates that matter between now and FID are the RCM allocation process and renewable methanol supply contracting at volume: 550,000 tpa of e-methanol and biomethanol is a serious upstream commitment that will need term contracts or equity partnerships. Worth watching: which methanol suppliers EET names in the FEED phase, how the RCM strike price gets set, and whether other UK pre-FID SAF projects converge on Stanlow’s wake as the reference site.
Source: Essar press release
