Give us subsidies or lose CO2 production, warns UK’s biggest bioethanol firm

The largest producer of high carbon dioxide in the United Kingdom warned of an imminent closing that could cause severe disturbance of industries that depend on the com?

Insus, who runs a major biological factory in Wilton in Texid, said that he may be forced to close his facility within weeks unless the government exceeded tens of millions of pounds in emergency benefits. The factory, which uses British wheat implanted for biological production of gasoline E10, also generates a vital secondary product: high -purity co₂. This gas is crucial for many sectors, including food, drink, healthcare, and nuclear industry.

ENSUS says the government’s commercial deal has been at risk to the entire local biological industry. By agreeing to remove an import tariff of 19 per cent over up to 1.4 billion liters of American ethanol annually – which increases the demand in the UK – the deal has almost impossible for British producers to compete. American manufacturers have already benefited from low crops and energy costs, and the sudden flow of cheap imports has placed plants in the UK such as ENSUS and Vivego fuel on the edge of closing.

“We are at eleven o’clock, and the government urgently needs to find a solution to a crisis of its creation. We need a solution that will not only save these skilled jobs on Teesside, but also prevent catastrophic influence in other vital sectors,” said Grant Pearson, Chairman of ENSUS UK.

It is understood that ENSUS weeks away from determining whether boxes will be committed during the scheduled maintenance period in September – without government support, this investment may not happen, which leads to the closing of the factory’s fate effectively.

The potential closure is not just a blow to 100 excess employees on Teesside, but it can strongly affect the CO₂ national supply, which already suffers from pressure. After the CF Fertilizers Factory in Billingham was closed in 2022, ENSUS became the largest local resource in the United Kingdom, providing about 30 percent of the national demand. With imports already meet the majority of CO₂ needs in the UK, the loss of ENSUS will let the country be seriously exposed to global deficiency.

While the government has highlighted that biological ethanol supplies themselves are not threatened by global health stocks, ENSUS raises attention towards the broader consequences of losing local production. CO₂ is used not only for carbonate drinks and maintaining packed foods but also in NHS operating theaters and cooling systems in nuclear installations.

The situation is repeated at Vivego Fuels, a biological factory on Humberside owned by British foods associated. Although Vivego does not provide CO₂, he has also warned that without immediate support, it will begin to end the operations within two weeks.

Industry sources say the sector is pressing the government not only for short -term financial aid but also for long -term policies to enhance the demand for British British. The proposals include increasing the percentage of ethanol in gasoline mixtures until after E10 and encouraging the use of ethanol in sustainable aviation fuel (SAFS). However, these initiatives will take years to implement – delayed to save the risk plants now.

The government defended the trade agreement, on the pretext that it would provide thousands of jobs in other sectors and is part of a broader strategy to deepen economic relations with the United States. However, critics say the deal has been transferred without insufficient consideration of its influence on local ethanol producers and the CO₂ supply chain.

A government spokesman said: “We are working closely with the ethanol industry to find a way to move forward – and he met business and transportation with representatives from the ethanol industry last week to discuss their concerns,” a government spokesman said.

Despite these meetings, no concrete support has been announced yet, and time is running out. ENSUS warning comes against the background of many modern CO₂ supply fears, as the UK food and drink companies often appear to be alarm due to a shortage that could disrupt production in a short notice.

Without immediate government interference, the closing of ENSUS does not only mean the loss of skilled manufacturing functions on Teesside, but it will also leave the critical British industries scrambling to reach the gas that plays an invisible but indispensable role in daily life.