New alliance will benefit region’s biofuels industry

12:30pm Friday 9th May 2008

A NEW partnership has been formed to help the North-East's biofuels industry become an international hub for the sector and achieve its goal of being worth £1bn to the regional economy by 2027.

The North-East Process Industries Cluster (Nepic) and North- East Biofuels (NEB) have formed a £1.7m three-year alliance to help deliver the region's biofuels strategy.

The document, launched last year by regional development agency One NorthEast (One), outlines the significant opportunities for the region's biofuels cluster, which has the potential to supply the global market and attract international investment.

The partnership agreement has been hailed as a significant step for the development of the North-East's biofuels industry - which has already seen more than £350m of private investment, with more planned - only weeks after it was rocked by the withdrawal of D1 Oils from Teesside.

It comes as a further boost to the launch of the national Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation last month, which requires all fuel companies to replace five per cent of their annual fossil fuel sales with biofuels by 2010.

The partnership was also said to be a crucial move in helping the region meet the recommendations of the Stern report into climate change, which claimed the market for low carbon energy products is likely to rise from £38bn to more than £500bn by 2050.

Ian Williams, One's director of business and industry, said: "North-East England has the potential to be one of the only European hubs capable of supplying the global market and attracting major investment - but it is still a young industry. We need strong leadership and expertise to build the capacity that will be needed in our production infrastructure and supply chains.

"By bringing together the different strengths and areas of expertise of Nepic and NEB to deliver the strategy, the region is in the strongest possible position to deliver on the strategy and seize on this opportunity for our economy."

Dr Stan Higgins, chief executive of Nepic, said: "The North- East is recognised across the world as a leading location for the process industry and has first-class infrastructure to support large scale chemical and biotechnology processing.

"Biofuels, biorefining and other activities requiring the handling of large amounts of material will always need these types of facilities. We have these in abundance on Teesside.

"This collaboration will ensure we have the capability of supporting and developing these new process industries going forward, as well as creating the supply chains that these new industries need."