The £250m Ensus plant in Wilton on Teeside will be the world’s biggest refinery to make bioethanol from around 1.2 million tonnes of feed wheat per annum. It will also produce animal feed and carbon dioxide (usable in food and beverage sector) as by-products. Just before it hits the production lines before Christmas this year, it has contracted Shell to buy 400 million liters of bioethanol a year.
Ensus’ refinery seeks to reduce GHG emissions and European demand for animal feed imports. It employs sustainable production practices in providing an eco-friendly alternative to oil for petrol vehicles. However, teaming up with the green skeptics who consider biofuel production from food crops as a nuisance to environment, the UK government seems to ditch green businesses in extending the deadline for mandatory inclusion of five percent of biofuel into petrol and diesel from 2011 to 2014.
Alwyn Hughes, chief executive of Ensus is critical of the government’s decision in highlighting that the refinery won’t only produce biofuel but will also produce 350,000 tons of animal feed a year.
Via: BusinessGreen