Overview

• Vivergo Fuels received its final scheduled wheat delivery on August 1 as it proceeds with staff consultations ahead of a potential shutdown by mid-September.
• The Saltend plant employs over 160 people, buys more than one million tonnes of British wheat annually, and supplies high-purity carbon dioxide to sectors including the NHS and food production.
• Meld Energy has warned that without Vivergo’s bioethanol output, its Saltend Chemicals Park sustainable aviation fuel facility could be moved overseas.
• Formal negotiations between the UK Government, Vivergo Fuels, and Ensus are ongoing with external advisers; no financial support package has yet been agreed.
• Producers argue that removal of the 19% US ethanol tariff under the UK–US trade deal and existing regulations has made domestic bioethanol production commercially unviable.