Pressured by environmental regulations and competition from modern plants, European refineries have been trying to ramp up production of cleaner products such as sustainable aviation fuel and biofuels to meet regulatory demand for such fuels. “The regulatory environment is not anymore just telling us what you can do. It’s like a business model for us,” said Lukasz Strupczewski, executive director of crude supply at PKN Orlen. Essar plans to make a final investment decision on its major blue hydrogen plant in the UK at the turn of the year, Fountain said. Essar also won government backing for a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) plant at Stanlow this year.