FEATURE - Biodiesel fans tout solution to pollution
Date: 04-Mar-02
Country: UK
Author: Sujata Rao
The sight left Steele wondering if anything useful could be done with grease destined for landfills. It was his first step into the weird and wonderful world of biodiesel - fuel produced from vegetable and animal oils or recycled grease.
Today, 42-year-old Steele is one of Britain's growing brigade of biodiesel fans. His red Volvo, a familiar sight in Manchester, runs on fuel brewed in his garden from oil he obtains from local kebab and fish-and-chip shops.
"The beauty is that organic-origin oil has as much specific energy as oil of mineral origin and there is enough renewable energy for our needs," said Steele, who whips up 250-litre (66-gallon) batches of diesel with an apparatus he perfected over the years.
Advocates say biodiesel is the solution to fuel shortages, pollution, global warming and farming problems. They say the sector is poised to grow into a multi-billion dollar industry over the next five years.
To make biodiesel, fats and oils are mixed with alcohol in a chemical reaction that produces compounds called fatty acid methyl esters. These are known as biodiesel when used as fuel.
GEARING UP
In Cheshire, just south of Manchester, scientist Stephen Whittaker is gearing up to launch Britain's first large biodiesel plant with a capacity of 250,000 litres a week.
Using Whittaker's own formula, his firm Ebony Solutions is producing 20,000 litres a week of a clean fuel called e-diesel, from used oil supplied by Asian food firm Sharwoods. From June, Whittaker's e-diesel will be sold at some petrol stations with plans for it to be sold at 500 outlets within a year.
"I don't see biodiesel entirely replacing petrodiesel, but I do predict all UK and European diesel ultimately containing a proportion of biodiesel," Whittaker said, adding that most biodiesel blends did not require vehicle engine modifications.
But despite its benefits and some headway in Germany and France, biodiesel still accounts for only a tiny percentage of European diesel consumption. Britain, with almost no commercial biodiesel production, lags the rest of Europe.
MANY BENEFITS
Biodiesel, according to the British Association of Biofuels and Oils (BABFO), is the solution to many of the world's ills and could give Britain up to 10 percent of its motor fuel needs.
The organisation says substituting a tonne of biodiesel for fossil diesel saves three tonnes of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 55 percent.
"It is safely biodegradable, far better on greenhouse gas emissions than fossil fuels, offers scope for recycling waste oils, recycles carbon on combustion and produces less local air pollutants than fossil diesel," BABFO chairman Peter Clery said.
"E-diesel has a greater calorific value compared to petro diesel," adds Ebony Solutions' Whittaker. "It also burns more cleanly hence more power is produced and less engine heat.
It may also help clean up landfills as more corporations get into the act. Supermarket chain ASDA is set to transform the 138,000 litres of chicken waste and cooking fat from its rotisseries into diesel for its delivery lorries.
"The UK produces 50-90 million litres of waste cooking oil a year and it seems like an awful waste of resource to just send it away to landfills or pour it down the sink," ASDA's Environment Manager Ian Bowles told Reuters.
Biodiesel in Europe is a $500 million industry today and consultancy Frost and Sullivan predicts it will grow to $2.4 billion with annual sales of 4.5 million tonnes by 2007.
The European Commission in 2001 directed that biodiesel make up 3.5 percent of the diesel fuel transport market by 2007.
Analysts say lack of tax incentives has hobbled the British biodiesel industry. In Germany where biodiesel enjoys zero duty rates, 600,000 tonnes of the fuel are produced every year, while France produces 275,000 tonnes.
In contrast, almost none is produced commercially in Britain and thou