Coach company invests in chip fat biodiesel

The transport operator, Stagecoach, is being battered as its revenue growth slows, but the company’s founder, Brian Souter, has upped his support for sustainable fuels by investing in a producer of biodiesel from used chip fat.

Souter Investments, his family’s investment firm, has bought a large stake in Argent Energy, a Scottish biodiesel producer.

Fat fares

For the last two years, people who live along a bus route in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire have been using exchanging their used cooking fat for discounts on bus travel.

Argent Energy processes the used fat and produces biodiesel for the eight buses taking part in the trial.

A spokesperson for the Environmental Transport Association (ETA) said “There has been much criticism of biofuels because their production takes up land and consumes energy that could be used for growing food, but the use of recycled cooking fats is a far more sustainable model.”

DIY biodiesel

Whilst some older diesel engines are able to run on used cooking oil that has simply been strained, modern diesel engines require it to be enhanced.

A device called the ‘FuelPod 2’ turns used cooking oil into biofuel that can be used in many diesel-engined vehicles. It is the size of a small fridge and is capable of producing up to 50 litres of biodiesel every day. Its fuel dispensing system lets you pump the finished fuel straight into your car.

What are biofuels?

Biofuels – fuels derived from plant or animal matter – are not a new idea. The Ford Model T, first produced in 1908, was originally designed to use ethanol, while Rudolf Diesel’s demonstration engine ran on peanut oil in 1912.

However, before long, petroleum-based fuels, which could be produced more cheaply, took over. Now, as the price of fossil fuels is rising and the dangers of global warming are becoming ever clearer, biofuels are becoming more popular again.

Benefits of biofuels

Biofuels are a renewable resource.

The plants grown to produce biofuels absorb the same amount of carbon dioxide as is released when the fuels are burnt. This means that their contribution to climate change is significantly lower than for fossil fuels.

Drawbacks of biofuels

A lot of land is required to grow the crops used to create biofuels. For example, to fuel our existing transport needs exclusively with biofuels would require 90% of the world’s agricultural land.
The pressure for land to grow biofuel crops will endanger the world’s rainforests. It has been argued that the net loss in carbon absorption capacity on converting rainforest to biofuel plantation means that biofuels actually have a greater impact on global warming than fossil fuels.

Availability of supply in Britain is very limited, although this is likely to change in the near future as the government pushes for greater use of biofuels.