 The plant will produce bio-ethanol from grain |
A �250m plant to produce environmentally friendly fuel is to be built on Teesside, leading to the creation of hundreds of jobs. The facility at Wilton will use locally-grown wheat to make bio-ethanol which can be mixed with petrol.
There will be 800 jobs created during construction. A further 100 will be directly employed at the plant and it will support up to 1,500 farming jobs.
It is the biggest single investment on the Wilton site for 17 years.
 |  We've worked hard to attract world-scale plants |
Alwyn Hughes, chief executive of Ensus, the company behind the project, said: "Bio-ethanol is made from wheat. It is a fermentation process and in very simple terms is similar to a large whiskey distillery.
"It is blended with petrol at the pump, and you could fill up your car with the mixture and not notice the difference."
'Exciting future'
He added that the Teesside was a very attractive area for investment, with excellent rail, road and port access.
Most of the land on the Wilton site is owned by SembCorp, which said it was delighted by the plan.
John Rock, assistant vice president for SembCorp, said: "If you think that just in 2001 we had three plant closures and the Enron collapse, it makes the future very exciting.
"We've worked hard to attract world-scale plants, so Ensus coming on board will give a lot of confidence to the region, and hopefully attract other large investments to the site."
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