Tees Valley Mayor Welcomes News Cutting-Edge Fuel Will Be Made On Teesside Securing Local Jobs

Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen has today (25 February) welcomed an announcement that a new, lower emission petrol set to be rolled out across the UK will be produced in Teesside securing local jobs.

E10 petrol, which is a mixture of petrol and ethanol made from materials such as low-grade grains, sugars and waste wood, will be rolled out across the country from September.

The Department for Transport announced that one of the companies set to benefit will be biofuel plant Ensus, based in Redcar, which will increase its production to develop the new E10 fuel.

Its introduction on UK roads could cut transport CO2 emissions by 750,000 tonnes per year, the equivalent of taking 350,000 cars off the road and

The news comes after the region recently hit the headlines with news of another nationally significant production – that Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies in Billingham is producing 60million doses of the Novavax Covid-19 vaccine.

Supporting clean transport, it was also announced that the UK’s first Hydrogen Transport Centre will be located in the area.

Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen said: “The fantastic news that Ensus, based on the Wilton site, will be ramping up production on the cutting-edge E10 biofuel shows once again that Teesside, Darlington and Hartlepool are leading the way for the whole of the UK in clean energy, growth and the industries of the future.

“This boost to our bioeconomy complements many other recent announcements from our region, such as becoming the home of the UK’s first Hydrogen Transport Centre, leading research, development and testing of new hydrogen transport technology for buses, cars, trains, lorries boats and planes.

“And with Net Zero Teesside’s Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage project also in development, to create the UK’s first zero-carbon industrial cluster, it shows that whether it’s clean transport or industry, we’re driving investment, spearheading nationally significant schemes and becoming the place to do business in these sectors – creating good-quality well paid jobs for local workers in key industries of the future”

The two petrol blends widely available in the UK today contain no more than 5% ethanol, known as E5; the fuel being rolled out in September has up to 10%. Using bioethanol in place of traditional petrol can reduce CO2 emissions, helping the UK achieve its net zero ambitions.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said: “We’re going further and faster than ever to cut emissions from our roads, cleaning up our air as we accelerate towards a zero-emission transport future.

“Although more and more motorists are driving electric vehicles, there are steps we can take to reduce emissions from the millions of vehicles already on our roads – the small switch to E10 petrol will help drivers across the country reduce the environmental impact of every journey, as we build back greener.”

Grant Pearson, Director of Ensus UK, said: “The announcement today of the planned introduction of E10 fuel by the Department for Transport is excellent news, not only for the Environment but for the British Bioethanol Industry. E10 will mean that the majority of petrol sold in the UK will have lower Greenhouse Gas Emissions than today, when fully introduced. Lowering emissions immediately for the current petrol car pool is very important, especially until electric vehicles can make a larger contribution to saving emissions in transport.

“The benefits for the UK go beyond the environment, particularly in the North East where the Ensus manufacturing facility is based and supports thousands of jobs both directly and in the supply chain.”