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Detailed information on the production of biofuels in the UK in the year 2000 is not held centrally, but the total amount produced is likely to have been very small. In July 2002, the Government introduced a 20- pence-per-litre fuel duty incentive for biodiesel, and in January 2005 it introduced a similar fuel duty incentive for bioethanol. These have led to a steady increase in UK biofuel sales, which in September 2006 were running at some 25 million litres a month. Approximately two-thirds of current sales are made up of biodiesel, the great majority of which is produced in the UK.
The Government announced in November 2005 that they would introduce a renewable transport fuel obligation, the effect of which will be to create a large new market for biofuels in the UK. This has led to a significant amount of investment in new UK biofuel production facilities. There are currently two major biodiesel production plants in operation in the UK—the ArgentEnergy plant near Motherwell and the Biofuels Corporation plant in Teesside—which between them are capable of producing some 300 million litres of high quality biodiesel a year, some of which is exported. A number of other biodiesel plants are at the planning and construction stage, including a Greenergy plant at Immingham which is due to come on stream in 2007. No bioethanol is yet produced in the UK, although a number of plants are at the planning and construction stage, including a British Sugar plant at Wissington in Norfolk and a Green Spirit plant at Henstridge in Somerset.