Green energy firm Vivergo remains upbeat despite suffering full year loss

VIVERGO Fuels yesterday revealed that it remained on course with its plans to create the UK’s biggest bioethanol plant.

During 2013, Vivergo made a loss for the year, after taxation, of £48.9m. The company said this was the result of a number of design and commissioning issues at the company’s biorefinery in Hull, which led to lower than expected output volumes of Vivergo’s two commodity products – bioethanol and animal feed.

Continuous production of bioethanol and animal feed started during the second half of 2013, and Vivergo said that volumes have increased steadily since then. In 2013, Vivergo’s two main shareholders, AB Sugar and BP, injected a total of £40m in funding to the business, on an equal basis.

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The company statement added: “By the end of 2013, key operational faults were rectified and production stabilised.

Throughout the course of 2014, Vivergo’s production volumes have continued to increase, in line with our forecast, with large quantities of bioethanol and animal feed products being supplied to the market.

Vivergo expects to achieve

full plant capability by the end of 2014, after which the focus will be to run consistently at plant design – producing 420 million litres of bioethanol and up to 500,000 tonnes of animal feed per year.”

At full production, Vivergo will be the UK’s biggest producer of bioethanol and the largest single source supplier of animal feed.

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Vivergo Fuels’ bioethanol plant is expected to produce a third of the UK’s bioethanol demand for petrol. The Humber region is set to become a significant base for renewable energy.

Earlier this year, Siemens announced a £160m investment in turbine production in Green Port Hull, located to the east of the city.

Associated British Ports also confirmed a further £150m investment to help establish an “Energy Estuary”.

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