Teesside Biofuel plant gets £90m investment to secure future for workers
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A Teesside biofuel plant is to receive £90 million of investment on its site at Wilton International, securing the future for its workforce.
Ensus UK, which produces renewable ethanol that is used for fuelling cars, will use between £60-70 million of the funds to construct a unit that will produce a new high-protein feed that can be used in pet food.
Chairman of the company, Grant Pearson, told ITV News: "By moving further up the food chain to address shortages for pet foods and potentially even for human foods. That’s much more important and gets us away from that ongoing argument about food versus fuel."
The company is already the largest producer of protein animal feed for the farming industry. But it is now diversifying to enable this new high protein feed for fish and pets securing the future for the company and its staff, but also enhancing its green credentials.
It will give fish and pet food producers the option of choosing a more environmentally friendly source of protein for their products, rather than solely relying on meat, especially when there is a shortage of protein.
Mr Pearson added: "Fundamentally in the world, there’s not a shortage of starch, but it is quite short of proteins and we import around two million tonnes of protein into the UK every single year, much of that potentially unsustainable, and so addressing that shortage is very important."
The plant is now the largest producer of CO2, responsible for around 60 per cent of the country's stock. Following the announcement of the closure of CF Fertilisers ammonia plant, it makes the Ensus UK operation even more important to Teesside and the country.
Mr Pearson said: "It’s very sad to hear about the closure of the CF Fertilisers ammonia plant and actually brings further responsibility on us because we’re now the UK’s largest and only major producer of biogenic CO2.
"So it is important that the business continues and these investments help us to guarantee that continuation."
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