Ineos Bio has secured a GBP7.3m grant from One North East and the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) for a Waste-to-Ethanol Plant to be located at the company's Seal Sands site in the Tees Valley in the North East of England.
The grant will be used towards GBP52m construction costs for the 30 million liter commercial-scale bioethanol plant, which is designed to convert bio-degradable household and commercial waste to carbon-neutral biofuel.
The bioethanol plant, which will use the company’s advanced BioEnergy Process Technology, is expected to be operational by 2012, helping to create 350 construction jobs and over 40 permanent skilled roles.
Once operational, the company plans to expand the plant into a larger integrated biorefinery, combining advanced bioenergy production with advanced waste treatment by 2015.
The company said that the biorefinery is expected to help to meet the UK’s 2020 renewable energy targets through the Renewable Energy Directive.
Peter Williams, CEO of Ineos Bio, said: “This grant from One North East and the Department for Energy and Climate Change, together with the considerable support that we are receiving from organizations such as the National Non Food Crop Centre, is enabling us to make progress with our commercialization plans in the North East of England.”
Following the successful completion of a detailed feasibility study by Ineos Bio, DECC has now approved funding of GBP4.5m for this next phase of the project. In addition, the Regional Development Agency One North East is investing GBP2.8m, of which GBP1.8m has been secured through the Tees Valley Industrial Programme.
Ineos claims that its BioEnergy Process Technology combines thermochemical and bio-chemical technologies to achieve energy-efficient and low-cost biofuel production from a range of biomass materials, including household and industrial waste.
The company said that at the heart of the Ineos Bio technology is an anaerobic fermentation step, through which naturally occurring bacteria convert gases derived directly from biomass into bio-ethanol. This bioethanol production is integrated with combined heat and power generation.
The Tees Valley Industrial Programme (TVIP) is a GBP60m investment over the next two years from One North East and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) specifically to support the area’s industrial transition to low carbon and advanced manufacturing.