Fuel producer will reopen next year

BUSINESS LEADERS and MPs have welcomed the reopening of the UK’s largest producer of bioethanol fuel at Saltend, near Hull, after a Government decision to allow the sale of a lower carbon fuel.

The move will create jobs at AB Sugar’s Vivergo plant, which closed in late 2018, due in part to delays in decision-making on E10 fuel for vehicles, which contains up to 10 per cent bioethanol.

It is now set to reopen in early 2022, with the new fuel becoming available on forecourts from September.

The factory, which opened in 2013 on the back of a £400m investment, takes locally grown animal feed wheat, mills it, brews it and then extracts bioethanol, which is then added to petrol.

Humber Local Enterprise Partnership chair Stephen Parnaby said it was a “quick and easy option to lower vehicle emissions, whilst also supporting our local industry and agriculture”. Beverley and Holderness MP Graham Stuart said the benefits for the environment were equivalent to about 300,000 cars being taken off roads each year.

A protein-rich animal feed produced as a by-product also reduces the UK’s dependency on soy imports from South America. He said: “Needless to say, this benefits the UK’s food security – not to mention the fact that it cuts transport emissions and helps prevent deforestation.” Before its closure, Vivergo processed around 1.1m tonnes of wheat from around 900 farms across the North East and Yorkshire.

Dr Mark Carr, Group Chief Executive of AB Sugar, said it would start recruiting around 85 people for specialist roles in the coming weeks. He said: “This is good news for a sustainable British biofuels industry, the economy within the Humber region, the environment and consumers.”