Teesside's bioethanol plant has reopened after remedial work to stem strong odours coming from the site.
Ensus, the green company behind the major wheat biorefinery at Wilton, had been trading just weeks when residents living near the plant complained of a potent smell in April.
Bosses closed the plant on June 30 and say they have spent a “significant” seven-figure sum on work to double the height of a 40 metre chimney stack to help disperse the odour more efficiently.
The company has also previously announced plans to install technology to destroy odour before it enters the stack.
Alwyn Hughes, chief executive of Ensus, said: “It’s early days, but the first indications show there is a significant reduction in odour and the stack has made a big difference. The total cost of work is unclear because our focus was getting the stack built as quickly as possible. We are still waiting for the final bills.”
Residents, he added, may still pick up a smell, depending on weather conditions and where they live.
“Clearly we’re hopeful that the stack does perform a lot better and the local community will see a significant reduction. We will be actively monitoring it, and are working with the Environment Agency and local people to resolve this.
“The Environment Agency will be checking the work and the first step will be to see how much difference heightening the stack has made, before looking at the next stage.
“We apologise to residents for any inconvenience caused and hope this work will make a significant and noticeable difference.”
Environment Agency project manager Julian Carrington said: “We are monitoring the odour coming from the Ensus plant and working closely with the Health Protection Agency and the company to make sure there is no harm to people’s health.
“Our monitoring will help us check how effective the new taller chimney is at dispersing the odour, however a reduction in odour will depend on wind direction and where people live.”
However he added that doubling the stack was not an acceptable final solution.
He said evidence showed a system for destroying the odour-producing compounds before they are released into the atmosphere would achieve the best outcome, but such a system would take time for Ensus to design and build.
“Our priority is to resolve this issue and we will continue to review our monitoring information before deciding what further action we need to take.”
The £300m super green Ensus plant - Europe’s largest wheat biorefinery - produces green road transport fuel, animal feed and for the drinks industry, using 1.2 million tonnes of surplus wheat a year and without impacting on food crops.
It created around 1,200 jobs during its construction phase and dozens of permanent jobs on Teesside. The facility was beset by delays throughout its construction phase ranging from Arctic weather conditions to sympathy strikes by its 1,000-strong construction team, which were entirely unrelated to the Ensus project.
Annual production from the plant alone is expected to meet about a third of the UK requirement under the Government’s
Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO), which requires 3.5% of all transport fuel in 2010-2011 to come from biofuels.
The saving in carbon emissions will be equivalent to taking 300,000 cars off the road.
The plant began its start-up process in February, but weeks later the Environment Agency received a number of complaints about the smell from people living nearby.
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