A FIRST-OF-ITS-KIND biorefinery in Grangemouth has reached a significant milestone as the first tanker containing green chemicals has left the plant.
The first truck to leave the Celtic Renewables factory marked the beginning of regular shipments of the green chemicals to manufacturers across Europe.
The renewables firm takes by-products and waste from the food, drink and agriculture industries, including by-products from whisky distillation, and turns them into high-value green chemicals.
The green chemicals, bioacetone and biobutanol, are then used in everyday products ranging from medicines to cosmetics.
Celtic Renewables technology aims to reduce the dependence on fossil fuels for everyday products while helping to lower carbon emissions within the industry.
The plant which, began as a spin-out from Edinburgh Napier University 16 years ago, secured £60 million in public and private investment, a third of which has come from Scottish Enterprise.
Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes toured the Grangemouth facility on Wednesday hailed the operation a huge success and said she was proud that renewable innovation is happening in Scotland.
She said: “This is a huge milestone because Celtic Renewables have been able to demonstrate they can replace products that previously came from the fossil fuel industry with products that are now from the renewables industry.
“They take a waste product, for example from the whiskey industry, and they turn it into material that can then be used in industries that previously relied on fossil fuels.
“That's a huge story when it comes to the just transition."
Forbes added: “What I'm delighted about is that it's happening here in Scotland.
“The jobs are being created here in Scotland, and the investment is happening here in Scotland.”
The Deputy First Minister added that a just transition should be a means of “creating jobs, creating wealth, creating prosperity” and added that Celtic Renewables is exactly what she wants to see in Scotland and that it provides a blueprint for the industry moving forward.
Forbes added that the just transition shouldn’t “feel like it’s leaving people behind” and that she wants it to not only include industrial workers but also enrich their lives for the better.
When asked how important it is to the Scottish Government that workers like those at Grangemouth’s oil refinery are not left behind in the transition from fossil fuels to renewables, Forbes said Celtic Renewables is an example of setting up jobs “early”.
She said: “This shows that it can be done, and the key is that it's happening early on in the just transition, so that we create the jobs up front, and so that we're not in a position where people are losing their jobs.
“The just transition is about them being able to upscale, rescale, and find new opportunities that they really enjoy that are meaningful and enrich their lives.
She added: “We're not then dealing with people being left behind as they were in previous industrial revolutions.”
Mark Simmers, CEO of Celtic Renewables, said the plant can produce around 800 tonnes of chemicals a year and hopes to be supplying customers from all over the world in the near future.
He said: “We're seeing a very strong demand. “Whilst we built this first plant as an exemplar, we've already got plans to build much bigger plants here in Scotland and across the world.”
Simmers added: “What we have in Grangemouth represents almost two decades of dedication and determination, supported by forward-thinking investors.
“Scottish Enterprise first backed us 16 years ago when we were conducting lab-scale research and has continued to provide support as we have grown and broken new ground. It shows real vision and belief in our potential.
“We are grateful to the Scottish Government for its commitment to encouraging innovation and supporting scale-up businesses like ours that are working towards a greener future. As Scotland works towards its 2045 net zero target we are helping that transition to a net zero, nature positive world through defossilisation.”
Adrian Gillespie, chief executive of Scottish Enterprise, added: “Celtic Renewables is a fantastic example of a home-grown success story that has gone from pioneering university research team to an exporting business planning its next stage of growth. Scottish Enterprise continues to support the company’s innovative approach to green chemicals production as it looks to the future.”
