Hull City Council has welcome the creation of up to 100 new jobs as Vivergo Fuels reopens as part of ambitious Government plans to bring a new eco-fuel to petrol stations across the UK.
The Vivergo Fuels manufacturing facility will be pivotal in delivering the Department for Transport’s new initiative to bring E10 fuel, which is a mixture of petrol and ethanol made from materials including low grade grains, sugars and waste wood, to drivers across the country.
The new fuel will drastically cut transport CO2 emissions by 750,000 tonnes per year, the equivalent of taking 350,000 cars off the road – or all the cars in North Yorkshire. The strategy will boost the Government’s ambitions to reach net zero by 2050 and also support Hull City Council’s ambitions to be carbon neutral by 2030.
In welcoming the news, Councillor Daren Hale, Hull City Council’s Portfolio Holder for Economic Investment and Regeneration, said: “This is excellent news for the city and region, ensuring that the considerable investment in this plant is optimised, underpinning high quality jobs and making a major contribution to our low carbon targets.”
The two petrol blends that are currently widely available in the UK 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, and therefore increasing the ethanol content of petrol could help us meet our climate change targets.
The reopening of Vivergo Fuels will support the UK’s wider bioeconomy by ensuring the materials needed for E10 are produced and refined in the UK.
Dr Mark Carr, Group Chief Executive of AB Sugar, said: “We are delighted to be re-opening the Vivergo Fuels site today located in the heart of the Northern Powerhouse on the back of the Government’s decision to move forward with E10.
“We’ve long been calling for this introduction as E10 is one of the quickest, easiest and most cost-effective ways of the UK reducing its carbon emissions whilst providing an economic boost to sustaining the British biofuels industry and the local and national economy.
“We will be recruiting around 85 highly skilled green jobs in addition to the core team that remained in place during its closure in the North East of England and re-opening a new market for wheat farmers in the UK”.
