| Wilton International | |
|---|---|
| Industrial area | |
  Wilton International Location within the United Kingdom | |
| Unitary authority | |
| Ceremonial county | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Wilton International is a multi-occupancy industrial area between Eston and Redcar, North Yorkshire, England. Originally a chemical plant, it has businesses in a variety of fields including energy generation, plastic recycling and process research. It is named after a village to the south of the area.
The site was formerly wholly owned and operated by ICI, a large chemical company which opened the site in 1949.
Following the fragmentation of ICI, the owner of the site since 1995, Enron owned the facility briefly before it was acquired by Sembcorp Industries, a Singapore company. [1] A number of multinational chemical companies now operate on the site. Sembcorp have built the UK's first wood-fired power station, Wilton 10, and in 2013 announced a new waste-to-energy plant known as Wilton 11.
There have been both closures and new chemical plants built at the Wilton site as the process industry continues to change and rejuvenate in line with changing consumer demands.
In 2001, BP closed its polythene plant (Polythene 5), which it had bought from ICI in 1982. In the same year Basell closed its polypropylene plant. [2] [3] In January 2009, Invista announced it was to close all of its plants on the site. The Teesside Power Station, a partially mothballed gas-fired power station built in 1993 for Enron, was being dismantled in 2014 and 2015. [4]
Companies currently operating on the site include SABIC, who built the world's largest low-density polyethylene plant (LDPE) in 2009 and still operate an ethylene cracker there. [5] [6]
Lotte Chemicals stopped PTA production, however built a new PET production plant. [7] Huntsman manufacture polyurethane intermediates and Ensus built their bioethanol facility in 2009, which at the time was the largest of its type in the United Kingdom. [8] Biffa Polymers opened a polymer recycling plant that handles up to 30% of the UK's plastic milk bottles in March 2011. [9] UK Wood Recycling Limited have a facility on the site providing waste wood to fuel the Wilton 10 power station. [10]
Wilton International is a multi-occupancy business and research centre and is one of the main offices used by the economic cluster body the Northeast of England Process Industry Cluster (NEPIC). Many occupants of the Wilton International facility are members of the Cluster. The complex is one of the largest R&D facilities in Europe and is home to the Centre for Process Innovation (CPI), part of the Technology Strategy Board's High Value Manufacturing Catapult network. [11] The site has laboratories and scale-up facilities for the chemistry-using process industries, that are accessed by many companies on a commercial or contract basis.
Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) was a British chemical company. It was, for much of its history, the largest manufacturer in Britain. Its headquarters were at Millbank in London. ICI was a constituent of the FT 30 and later the FTSE 100 indices.
Redcar and Cleveland is a unitary authority area with borough status in the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, England. Its council has been a unitary authority since 1996.
Teesside is a built-up area around the River Tees in North East England straddling the border between County Durham and North Yorkshire. The area contains the towns of Middlesbrough, Stockton-on-Tees, Billingham, Redcar, Thornaby-on-Tees, and Ingleby Barwick. Teesside's economy was once dominated by heavy manufacturing until deindustrialisation in the latter half of the 20th century. Chemical production continues to contribute significantly to Teesside's economy.
Billingham is a town and civil parish in County Durham, England. The town is on the north side of the River Tees and is governed as part of the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees unitary authority. It had a population of 35,165 in the 2011 Census.
Tees Valley is a combined authority area in North East England, around the lower River Tees. The area is not a geographical valley; the local term for the valley is Teesdale. The combined authority covers five council areas: Darlington, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland and Stockton-on-Tees.
Elton is a village and civil parish in Cheshire West and Chester, Cheshire, England, 13 km (8.1 mi) northeast of Chester, between Helsby and Ellesmere Port, near the River Mersey. Its proximity to the Mersey and the Manchester Ship Canal have contributed to its industrial character. The village is on the north-western edge of the Cheshire Plain, 2.5 km (1.6 mi) from Stanlow Refinery.
Ince is a village and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It is situated immediately to the east of the Stanlow Oil Refinery. It shares Ince & Elton railway station with the village of Elton, which it runs into.
Wilton is a small village in Redcar and Cleveland, North Yorkshire, England.
Teesport is a large sea port located in the unitary authority of Redcar and Cleveland, in the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, Northern England.
Seal Sands is a 294.37 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in County Durham, England, notified in 1966.
Teesside Power Station is a former gas-fired power station, in Redcar & Cleveland, England. Situated near the Wilton chemical complex, the station had combined cycle gas turbines (CCGTs) and open cycle gas turbines (OCGTs), however in 2011 the operation of the CCGT part of the station was suspended, and in 2013 the owners announced its closure and plans to demolish it. Prior to the suspension, the station had a generating capacity of 1875 megawatts (MW), making it the largest of any CCGT power station in Europe. The station could meet almost 3% of the electricity demand for England, Wales and Scotland. Opened in 1993, the station was initially operated by Enron but moved into the hands of PX Ltd after the Enron scandal of 2001, before being bought by Gaz de France and Suez in 2008. The station also worked as a cogeneration plant, providing steam for the Wilton complex.
Fawley Refinery is an oil refinery located at Fawley, Hampshire, England. The refinery is owned by Esso Petroleum Company Limited, a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil Corporation, which acquired the site in 1925. Situated on Southampton Water, it was rebuilt and extended in 1951 and is now the largest oil refinery in the United Kingdom, and one of the most complex refineries in Europe. With a capacity of 270,000 barrels (43,000 m3) per day, Fawley provides 20 per cent of the UK's refinery capacity. Over 2,500 people are employed at the site.
The Teesside Refinery was an oil refinery and chemical plant situated just south of Seaton Carew on the River Tees in County Durham. In 2000, it was bought by Petroplus from ICI and Phillips Petroleum Company. Refining was suspended in 2009, although the site continues to operate as a terminal and storage facility.
The Central Area Transmission System is a natural gas transportation and processing system that transports natural gas through a 404 kilometre pipeline from the Central North Sea to a reception and processing terminal at Teesside in the North East of England.
The Wilton power station refers to a series of coal, oil, gas and biomass fired CHP power stations which provide electricity and heat for the Wilton International Complex, with excess electricity being sold to the National Grid. It is located on the Wilton site in Redcar and Cleveland, south of the town of Middlesbrough in North East England. The station has provided for the site since opening in 1952, when it was operated by ICI. The station is currently owned and operated by SembCorp Industries.
Teesside Energy from Waste plant is a municipal waste incinerator and waste-to-energy power station, which provides 29.2 megawatts (MW) of electricity for the National Grid by burning 390,000 tonnes of household and commercial waste a year. It is located on the River Tees at Haverton Hill, east of Billingham in North East England. Developed and built by NEM, a subsidiary of Northumbrian Water, the initial plant replaced the Portrack Incinerator and opened in 1998. Subsequently, the facility became part of SITA, now Suez.
The North East of England Process Industry Cluster (NEPIC) is an economic cluster developed in accordance with Michael Porter's theories and strategies regarding industrial clusters. The chemistry-using sectors in North East England, where more than 1,400 businesses are headquartered in the industry's supply chain, formed this Process Industry Cluster. In the north-east of England, the industry employs approximately 35,000 direct workers and around 190,000 indirect workers, who collectively account for more than one-third of the area's industrial economy. Companies in the cluster produce 35% of the pharmaceuticals and 50% of the petrochemicals used in the UK, making this area the only net exporter of goods from the country. The area has more than £13 billion in exports.
Chinook Sciences is a US and UK based technology company that specializes in waste to energy and metal recovery.
The chemical industry in the United Kingdom is one of the UK's main manufacturing industries. At one time, the UK's chemical industry was a world leader. The industry has also been environmentally damaging, and includes radioactive nuclear industries.
The Whitetail Clean Energy is a proposed power station in Wilton, Redcar and Cleveland, England. The generating process of the plant is listed as a "clean energy source", using natural gas and oxygen in an Allam-Fetvedt Cycle to create power. The excess carbon dioxide not used by the co-generation process is intended to be captured and stored under the North Sea, making the plant the first in the United Kingdom to utilise this type of technology, and also use carbon sequestration under the North Sea. The plant is also included in the Net Zero Teesside project. The power plant is proposed to start generating in 2025.
