Home ›› About Ensus ›› Overview
The Ensus Group is building Europe’s largest wheat refinery at Wilton on Teesside in North East England. When completed in 2009, it will use locally grown animal feed wheat to produce over 400 million litres of bioethanol, 350 thousand tonnes of high protein animal feed, and 300 thousand tonnes of carbon dioxide for use in soft drinks and food production each year. Power will be supplied by a combined heat and power plant with surplus electricity used by other plants on the Wilton site.
The Group raised £250 million to build the plant, which is being constructed in response to UK and EU targets to reduce carbon emissions from road transport. The UK requires that a proportion of all petrol and diesel sold in the UK should come from renewable sources in order to combat global warming, and this target will rise to 5% over the next few years. Ensus will be able to meet one third of the UK’s bioethanol demand, equivalent to taking 300,000 cars off the road.
The 350 thousand tonnes of high protein animal feed produced by the plant will reduce European demand for soy meal imports that contribute to high levels of deforestation in South America.
The refinery has been designed according to strict sustainability criteria. Producing biofuels from protein crops such as animal feed wheat delivers greenhouse gas emission savings which more than cancel out the emissions of the fossil fuels they replace.
Ensus plans to build a number of plants across Europe, and will create value through a growth strategy based on:
1. World scale plants using proven technologies, integrating with existing transport and utilities infrastructure, and focusing on conversion yield and energy efficiencies that will also deliver significant greenhouse gas savings
2. Co-product value, consistently producing high quality animal feed ingredients that meet the needs of Europe’s animal producers and feed compounders, whilst reducing agricultural pressure on high carbon stock land outside Europe
3. Competitive feedstock sourcing, locating capacity near Europe’s regional wheat surpluses and close to ports for access to international feedstock markets
4. Strong strategic partners, with the ability to support the growth aspirations of the Group
• Aerial view of Wilton site. Click to enlarge.
