Grangemouth Biofuel Plans Shelved

Plans to build a huge biofuel plant at Scotland's oil refinery have been shelved. Ineos, which operates the refinery at Grangemouth, has blamed the economic climate for the decision to scrap the £65 million plans. It would have seen about 1.2 million tonnes of biodiesel created at the plant by 2010.

Ineos announced its plans two years ago and said it wanted the site to become a world leader in the production of biofuels made from food crops. It was to build a new plant at the massive refinery site to handle the new production – and had attracted £9 million from the Scottish Government's Regional Collective Assistance fund.

The Ineos site manager, Gordon Grant, said: "Earlier this month we indicated to the Scottish Government that we would not be progressing with the biodiesel plant in Grangemouth.

"Biodiesel produced from food sources is very uncertain at the moment and this, coupled with the economic climate, makes it difficult in terms of being able to fund the project. We are just not in a position to go forward, as we simply don't have the money to put the investment in."