Costs fuel a green worry
A TEES Valley energy expert has refuted claims that biofuel production has caused recent price hikes in commodities, such as wheat and barley - if anything, it threatened supplies of feedstocks for fuel, he said.
On Monday the price of high-protein spring wheat jumped 25% in one day. While environmentalists claim demand for alternative crops is encouraging farmers to come out of wheat in favour of corn, sugarcane and rapeseed, the Home Grown Cereals Authority estimates that UK wheat plantings are up 13% this year. Official government figures are expected to confirm the acreage next week.
Sean Sutcliffe, chief executive of the Biofuels Corporation in Middlesbrough, believes that far from instigating commodity price hikes, bio-fuel production is being threatened by them.
He said: “The amount of food produced from biofuel is relatively small. if anything, the biofuels industry is being hit by rising commodity prices.
“Massive US subsidies are damaging European industry. The European Commission should introduce import duties on US goods to lessen the impact of unfair US subsidies on local producers.”
But on Teesside, a new plant owned by the Ensus Group at Wilton International will make an alternative fuel from wheat extract. More than 150,000 hectares of land will be needed to grow the raw materials every year, and Ensus, who will source produce locally, says hundreds of jobs will be created.
The plant will be the largest bio-ethanol facility in Europe, producing more than 4m litres of fuel fermented from wheat grain.
