The UK’s largest producer of high-purity carbon dioxide has warned of an imminent shutdown that could cause severe disruption to industries reliant on commercial CO₂, after being blindsided by a recent UK-US trade deal that removes tariffs on American bioethanol imports.
Ensus, which operates a major bioethanol plant at Wilton on Teesside, said it may be forced to close its facility within weeks unless the government steps in with tens of millions of pounds in emergency subsidies. The plant, which uses British-grown wheat to produce bioethanol for E10 petrol, also generates a vital by-product: high-purity CO₂. This gas is critical for numerous sectors, including food and drink manufacturing, healthcare, and the nuclear industry.
Ensus says the government’s trade deal has jeopardised the entire domestic bioethanol industry. By agreeing to remove a 19 per cent import tariff on up to 1.4 billion litres of US bioethanol per year—roughly the UK’s total demand—the deal has made it almost impossible for British producers to compete. US manufacturers already benefit from lower crop and energy costs, and the sudden influx of cheap imports has put UK-based plants like Ensus and Vivergo Fuels on the brink of closure.
Grant Pearson, chairman of Ensus UK, said the situation had become critical: “We are at the 11th hour and the government urgently needs to find a solution to a crisis of its own making. We need a solution which will not only save these skilled jobs on Teesside, but also prevent a catastrophic knock-on effect in other vital sectors of the economy.”
Ensus is understood to be weeks away from deciding whether to commit funds for a scheduled maintenance period in September—without government backing, that investment may not happen, effectively sealing the plant’s fate.
The potential closure is not just a blow to the 100-plus staff at the Teesside site, but could also severely affect national CO₂ supply, which is already under strain. Following the shutdown of CF Fertilisers’ plant in Billingham in 2022, Ensus became the UK’s largest domestic CO₂ supplier, providing around 30 per cent of national demand. With imports already meeting the majority of the UK’s CO₂ needs, the loss of Ensus would leave the country dangerously exposed to global shortages.
While the government has highlighted that bioethanol supply itself is not under threat due to healthy global stocks, Ensus is pushing attention towards the wider consequences of domestic production loss. Its CO₂ is used not only to carbonate drinks and preserve packaged foods but also in NHS operating theatres and for cooling systems in nuclear facilities.
The situation is echoed at Vivergo Fuels, a bioethanol plant on Humberside owned by Associated British Foods. While Vivergo does not supply CO₂, it too has warned that without immediate support, it will begin winding down operations within a fortnight.
Industry sources say the sector is lobbying the government not only for short-term financial aid but also for longer-term policies to bolster demand for British bioethanol. Proposals include increasing the bioethanol proportion in petrol blends beyond E10 and encouraging the use of bioethanol in sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs). However, these initiatives would take years to implement—too late to save the plants at risk now.
The government has defended the trade agreement, arguing that it will save thousands of jobs across other sectors and is part of a broader strategy to deepen economic ties with the US. However, critics say the deal was rushed through without adequate consideration of its impact on domestic bioethanol producers and the CO₂ supply chain.
A government spokesperson said: “We are working closely with the ethanol industry to find a way forward — and the Business and Transport Secretaries met with representatives from the bioethanol industry last week to discuss their concerns.”
Despite those meetings, no concrete support has yet been announced, and time is running out. Ensus’s warning comes against the backdrop of several recent CO₂ supply scares, with UK food and drink firms frequently sounding the alarm over shortages that can disrupt production at short notice.
Without immediate government intervention, Ensus’s closure would not only mean the loss of skilled manufacturing jobs on Teesside, but would also leave critical UK industries scrambling for access to a gas that plays an invisible but indispensable role in daily life.
Read more:
Give us subsidies or lose CO2 production, warns UK’s biggest bioethanol firm
