Green fuel plant given go-ahead
PLANS for a jobs-boosting £47m renewable fuel plant have been approved.
And once funding streams have been finalised, dozens of new jobs will be on the way to the new facility on the outskirts of Hartlepool.
The plans for an oil seed rape processing plant near Hartlepool, creating 70 jobs, submitted by Tees Valley Biofuels (TVB) were approved by Stockton Borough Council planning committee this week.
The proposals could also potentially create hundreds of jobs indirectly because of the knock-on effect of the plant on related companies.
This is the final regulatory hurdle for the plant which is in the process of raising the funding for the project from a number of undisclosed sources.
TVB managing director designate, Ian Waller, said: “We are pleased with this decision. It is another important and significant biofuels project in the North East.
“TVB is a startup business that doesn’t employ anybody.
“We are currently in delicate negotiations with a number of potential backers and only when these are confirmed can we progress and employ people.”
Once finance has been put in place construction is expected to start later this year at Vopak’s bulk liquid storage terminal at Seal Sands, near Billingham.
The plant is scheduled to crush 500,000 tonnes of rape seed a year creating 225,000 tonnes of vegetable oil for biodiesel producers.
The remaining 275,000 tonnes of crushed rape seed – or meal – will be put in containers and exported for electricity generation in UK power stations.
The biggest beneficiary of the new plant’s vegetable oil is likely to be the biodiesel producing plant owned by the Biofuels Corporation which is Europe’s largest single plant – located opposite the approved site at Seal Sands.
It is hoped the crusher plant will be completed in the first quarter of 2008.
Teesside is rapidly becoming a major centre for renewable fuels production.
The US company Losonoco has announced plans to build a £100m bioethanol plant creating around 80 jobs, although the precise location and timings are not yet known.
