£50m steam drying project launches at Wissington sugar beet factory

In addition to British Sugar’s own investment, the project has received a grant of £7.5 million from the government’s Industrial Energy Transformation Fund (IETF).

The sugar beet processor said that this significant capital has been “fundamental” in the project’s development.

Wissington, the largest of British Sugar’s four factories, located in Norfolk, is celebrating 100 years of sugar manufacturing this year, having first opened in 1925.

Currently, it processes over three million tonnes of sugar beet every year into approximately 400,000 tonnes of sugar and many co-products that are derived from the sugar production process.

This process, by nature, requires large amounts of energy in the form of heat and electricity, and although the amount of steam needed to process the sugar beet has more than halved over recent years, the site remains a high user of energy.

As a result, and further to a £17m investment in a new evaporator, heat exchangers and processing equipment commissioned at Wissington in autumn 2023, this project sees the installation of two brand-new steam dryers to dry its sugar beet pulp, turning it into an animal feed product.

The dryers will have greater integration into the rest of the sugar manufacturing process by taking steam directly from the combined heat and power (CHP) plant on site. Together, these two projects represent a reduction of 80,000 tonnes of Scope 1 emissions; that’s a significant 25% reduction across the site, British Sugar explained.

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‘Another step-change’

Phil McNaughton, head of decarbonisation at British Sugar, said: “This project would not be possible without significant investment from the government through the IETF. It marks another step-change in our decarbonisation journey at British Sugar’s Wissington factory.

“Removing 50,000 tonnes of Scope 1 carbon emissions per annum from our site is a significant milestone for us, and it is the single biggest decarbonisation project that we have undertaken as a business.

“This project brings us significantly closer to our ambition of being net zero by 2050. We look forward to working together with the government in the future to utilise new technologies and continue decarbonising our operations.”

Terry Jermy, Member of Parliament for South West Norfolk, added that investment in innovative decarbonisation technologies is essential to meeting the government’s climate targets while ensuring economic prosperity and job creation in regions like Norfolk.

“I am fully supportive of British Sugar’s drive to decarbonise its operations, particularly at Wissington in my constituency, and it was a pleasure to meet some of the project team, including some passionate apprentices, during my visit earlier this year,” he concluded.

Construction on site has started in order to be ready for commissioning in autumn 2026.

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