Investment 'icing on the cake'
NEWS that Norwegian firm Yara is to sink nearly £24m into a CO2 processing plant on Teesside is the “final piece in the jigsaw” for bosses behind Ensus’ ambitious biofuel plans.
The 250,000t liquid CO2 facility to be built next to the emerging £250m wheat-to-enthanol refinery at Wilton, will close the carbon loop, creating what is thought to be the first zero-waste biofuels facility in the country.
Yarm-based Ensus chief executive Alwyn Hughes said Yara’s investment was not necessary to the financial success of the project, but it was “the icing on the cake”.
“This means we are making and selling all the products from the refining process - we use everything, every scrap on the plate.”
Biofuels have come in for heavy criticism from environmentalists and the influential parliamentary Environmental Audit Committee, which called on the Government to put the brakes on policies encouraging the development of a UK biofuels industry. It blamed it for helping create food shortages and adding to the environmental burden.
But Mr Hughes said that with the CO2 processing facility, two-thirds of output from the plant, which is to be supplied with home-grown wheat to be processed into a green petrol substitute, would be going back into the food chain.
“This plant really is about food and fuel, not food versus fuel,” he said. “The starch goes into CO2 and ethanol production, and the protein goes into the animal feed market.” He said the feed bi-product, which at 35-40% protein compared favourable with soy, would help reduce UK farmers’ reliance on imports. He said the price would be “competitive” with soy-based feed.
Yara operates a number of facilities in Europe supplying liquid CO2 to the food and beverage industry where it is used in refrigerated transport as well as putting the bubbles into millions of fizzy drinks. The company said the proximity of Tees Port, which would give easy access to terminals in Scandinavia and Northern Europe, had helped influenced its decision.
“It genuinely is good news for Teesside,” said Mr Hughes. “It’s more investment coming into the North-east and takes our total investment on Teesside to more than £300m.”
He said the biofuels plant was on schedule to open in 2009. “Hopefully, this time next year we will be operational.”
And he said he had been impressed by the quality of applicants for the first tranche in Ensus’ recruitment for around 70 jobs at the plant.
“That’s one area I’m particularly delighted with. For the kind of industry we are, the quality of people on Teesside is absolutely outstanding,” he said.
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