‘It breaks my heart’: how a refinery closure is hitting jobs and politics

In the second in a series, the Guardian looks at how Grangemouth struggles as Reform UK hopes to win votes

• They feel betrayed': how Reform UK is targeting votes in Britain's manufacturing heartlands

Every morning in Grangemouth, chemists at Celtic Renewables's small factory feed a vial of microbes with a precisely tailored cocktail of food - liquid residues from the scotch whisky industry.

In vessels surrounded by a web of metal pipes and gleaming stainless steel valves, the microbes multiply into something other than drink: a starter solution for batches of acetone, butanol and ethanol - chemicals essential for countless everyday products.