The United Kingdom's Vivergo bioethanol plant has shut down and will soon lay off its 160 employees, after the British government decided not to offer the facility the financial assistance it needed to stay open.

BBC News reports that the plant will begin layoffs on August 19, while the facility is set to be demolished by the end of the year. Vivergo's facility — which is one of just two bioethanol plants in the U.K. — has struggled to stay financially viable in the face of competition from imported U.S. ethanol. Without support from the government, the company said that it would have had to continue operating as a "heavily loss-making business." 

Because imported U.S. ethanol is made from distillers' corn oil, it's classified as a waste byproduct under the U.K.'s sustainability rules, and as such, counts double toward renewable fuel targets. Bioethanol produced domestically in the U.K. is not afforded that classification, as it largely comes from virgin crops such as wheat, sugar beet and corn. That's put the U.K.'s bioethanol sector at a significant disadvantage for years, with that gap widening in May when Britain agreed to drop its 19% tariffs on U.S. ethanol in exchange for reduced duties on U.K. cars and steel.