British Sugar factory in Wissington gets slice of Government funding to help reduce emissions

British Sugar’s West Norfolk factory is getting a slice of £21.3million in Government funding to reduce carbon emissions and improve the efficiency of operations.

The factory in Wissington is among ten businesses benefiting from the grants, which will support investment to install emissions-cutting technology such as heat pumps and carbon capture – with projects worth £99.2million in total.

British Sugar has received £7.5million to support a £37million project to revolutionise its drying process. Gas dryers will be replaced with steam dryers, cutting site emissions by 25% and saving 193,000 MWh/year in energy usage.

Terry Jermy, the Labour MP for South West Norfolk, said: “This is excellent news as British Sugar is a pillar of our country and region with regards production and innovation.

“I visited the site earlier this year to tour the factory and met a number of apprentices on site. It is a major employer in South West Norfolk and they are a company that value investing in highly skilled jobs and talent.

“This will help drive sustainability in the business sector and not only help the environment, but indeed the economy locally and at large. It is also the largest sugar beet factory in Europe. Labour are making the UK the global hub for the green technologies.”

Phil McNaughton, head of decarbonisation at British Sugar, said: “This project would not be possible without significant investment from the Government through the IETF Fund.

“It marks another step-change in our decarbonisation journey at British Sugar in Wissington. To be able to remove 50k/t of Scope 1 emissions per annum from our site marks a significant milestone for us and brings us further to our goal of being a net zero operation.

“We look forward to working together with the Government in the future to utilise new technologies and continue decarbonising our operations.”