Financial crisis does for Scottish biofuel plant
Plans for £65m facility on indefinite hold
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Chemical company Ineos Enterprises has "put on hold" indefinitely plans to build a £65m biodiesel plant in Grangemouth, near Falkirk.
The company, which already operates a synthetic ethanol refinery in the town, said the "current economic slowdown had rendered the project unviable", according to the BBC.
The proposed facility - announced back in 2006 and expected to be operational this year - would have produced 500,000 tons of biofuel a year. It had attracted a £9m grant from the Scottish Government, which Ineos has returned.
Ineos said in a statement: "Given the continued and prolonged global economic downturn Ineos is focussing on tight control of costs and expenditure across its entire portfolio.
"As a consequence, ongoing plans to invest in new additional biodiesel capacity across Europe are on hold until Ineos has a clearer picture of the economic outlook. Across Europe, manufacturing industry, including chemicals and biofuels, is experiencing a period of unprecedented volatility and uncertainty and accurate forecasting is expected to remain extremely difficult in the short-term."
The convener of Falkirk Council's economic development committee, councillor Craig Martin, said: "We are obviously disappointed that this innovative idea isn't going ahead. However, we fully recognise that many businesses across the UK are being forced to rethink their operations.
"We are willing to assist Ineos in any way we can, particularly when it comes to preserving jobs."
Ineos Enterprises already operates a biodiesel plant in Baleycourt, France. A spokesman said the firm would press ahead with plans to double capacity there. ®
COMMENTS
@ Xander
"Didn't some folks work out that biofuel was Worse than fossil fuel due to deforestation and such?"
Depends on how you get your biofuel. Not every scheme involves carving up forests. There are schemes to process wood pulp and other waste materials. ( gas, coal and oil are all biofuels, just takes a bit longer to process).
The funding and profit issue is forgotten about and folks are sidelines in to the eco argument. The rush for bio fuels included the quick and dirty palm and corn oils which rely on screwing over large tracts of land to get the end product. The idea being that as oil prices were so high, anything would be O.K. to keep infernal combustion engines running (folks tend to think of themselves first and how they can drive the kids to school and go to the shops before considering deforestation.)
FUD is the marketing watchword - sky falling in and all that guff. It's not as bad as nuke etc. etc.
More to do with the falling price of oil
This is more to do with the falling price of oil than recession-mongering I would think. The falling price of oil has been caused by many things, not just the world recession.
In any case 500 million litres is a piss in the ocean when it comes to the countries diesel consumption.
This isn't a bad thing
Didn't some folks work out that biofuel was Worse than fossil fuel due to deforestation and such?
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