Bioethanol plant to create 750 jobs
A NEW plant to produce renewable fuel in the region aims to create 750 jobs when building starts later this year.
The facility in Grimsby, operated by green fuels group Vireol, will use wheat to produce bioethanol.
Once up and running it will provide 70 permanent jobs but hundreds more are expected to be involved in building the project.
Knaresborough-based Vireol, led by chief executive David Knibbs, is a leading socially responsible company promoting measures to reduce greenhouse gases.
The business is backed by Future Capital Partners – the £6bn alternative investment boutique – which has acquired the Grimsby site and planning permission for the industrial scale plant.
European demand for biofuels has been driven by the Renewable Transport Fuels Order (RTFO) 2007.
Since April 2008, this has required blending of biofuels with fossil starting at a level of 2.5%. From next month it rises to 3.25% and reaches 5% by 2013.
Fossil fuel suppliers face penalties of 30p per litre if they do not comply.
The Vireol plant will use wheat to deliver three main products – a Renewable Transport Fuel (RTF) – bioethanol, a high protein animal feed, Distillers Dried Grains and Solids (DDGS) and liquefied CO2 for use in the food and drink industry.
The wheat used by Vireol is feed wheat quality that has traditionally been fed direct to animals or exported.
The DDGS ensures all the protein in the wheat is still fed to animals.
Vireol has pre-sold all the outputs from its plant and has recently agreed terms for a 15-year off-take agreement for its CO2 by-product with a major gas supplier to the food and drinks market.
It has also agreed with a major global investment bank the sale of the first 10 years of RTF production, while a global animal feeds business will buy the high-protein by-product.
Mr Knibbs said: “The environmental benefit of this project will equate to removing over 60,000 cars from the road every year. In addition, the fuels we produce will help to reduce the UK’s reliance on imported oil. Our plant will be the latest of only three in this country.
“Bioethanol produced in the UK has all the credentials to be a real success story and an industry in which we can lead the way in Europe.”
