Scottish, UK governments release plan for post-refining Grangemouth site

The UK and Scottish governments have unveiled potential options for securing a long-term industrial future for Petroineos Refining Ltd. subsidiary Petroineos Manufacturing Scotland Ltd.’s soon-to-be-shuttered 150,000-b/d Grangemouth refinery complex on the Firth of Forth in Scotland.

On Mar. 19, the two governments released results of a £1.5-million ($2-million) feasibility study executed by Ernst & Young Global Ltd. that provides proposals for the site’s future most likely to attract private investment—including plastics recycling, hydrogen production, and other projects—that could create up to 800 jobs by 2040.

The plan—backed by £25 million from the Scottish government and £200 million from the UK government—would options for the previously announced Project Willow, which aims to transform the site into a low-carbon fuels manufacturing hub, according to project documents released by the government.

Originally commissioned by Petroineos, the feasibility study identifies nine sustainable key investment areas within the categories of wastes, biofeedstock, and support for offshore wind. By category, investments could include:

• Waste: Hydrothermal upgrading (breaking down hard-to-recycle plastics); chemical plastics recycling, acetone–butanol–ethanol (ABE) biorefining (breaking down waste material).

• Biofeedstock: Breaking down Scottish timber into bioethanol; anaerobic digestion of bioresources and digestate pyrolysis; hydrotreated esters and fatty acids (HEFA), entailing conversion of Scottish cover crops into sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and renewable diesel using low-carbon hydrogen.

• Offshore wind conduit: Replacing natural gas with hydrogen; using low-carbon hydrogen to produce methanol for subsequent conversion to SAF; producing low-carbon ammonia from hydrogen for shipping and chemicals.

Both the UK and Scottish governments said they work with Petroineos to market the proposals set out in Project Willow and seek investor interest to support businesses and stakeholders in a goal to bring forward investible propositions for the site within the next 12 months.

Release of the feasibility study follows PRL’s initial announcement of Project Willow in September 2024 upon the operator's confirmation it will permanently end operations at Grangemouth in second-quarter 2025 (OGJ Online, Sept. 13, 2024).