Transport
The Forestry Commission has 160 vehicles using "biodiesel", which is a diesel-like fuel that is refined from vegetable oil, including used cooking oil (UCO), and mixed with the usual mineral diesel. One forestry van being used in a trial in northern Scotland is doing well in a trial using 100 per cent biodiesel.
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As a government department, the Commission is committed to meeting the European Union's targets for use of carbon-neutral biological fuels, or "bio-fuels" - and it is already well ahead of the target. The target for the use of renewable road fuels derived from organic sources is 2 per cent by the end of 2005, and 5.75 per cent by the end of 2010. However, biodiesel already comprises about 15 per cent of the total road fuel bought by the Commission in southern Scotland, 8 per cent over the whole of Scotland, and 5 per cent over the whole of Great Britain.
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Richard Earle, the sustainability development officer with the Commission's Business Units, which include its Mechanical Engineering Services reports:
"So far, so good. All our biodiesel-powered vehicles are running well, with no sign of it doing any harm to our engines, and we're delighted to be making this contribution to the 'Greening Government' programme.
"Vegetable oils are a sustainable fuel because they can continually be replaced by growing more of the plants that we get them from, such as oilseed rape. We can't do that with fossil fuels such as mineral oil.
"And for the same reason, they are 'carbon-neutral'. In other words, they don't increase the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. That's because this year's crop of oil-producing plants reabsorbs the same amount of carbon from the atmosphere as last year's crop released, in a perpetual, carbon-neutral cycle - just as our forests do when we replant them after harvesting.
"They are also more environmentally friendly, because they release fewer particulates (minute particles of soot), unburned hydrocarbons, oxides of sulphur and carbon monoxide into the air. And by using waste oil as a fuel we solve the problem of disposing of it after it's been used for cooking."
The vegetable oil used in biodiesel comes from both "virgin" (fresh-from-the-plant) sources and used cooking oil. The used cooking oil is supplied to bulk distributors by restaurants, chip shops and large industrial cooking establishments, such as those that make microwave-ready chips. The bulk distributors refine it into bio-diesel and sell it on to customers such as the Forestry Commission.
Most of the Commission's biodiesel-powered vehicles run on a blend of 95% of the usual ultra-low-sulphur mineral diesel and 5% biodiesel. However, car-maker Citroen, which supplies many of the Commission's small vehicles, recently turned up the heat on mineral fuels when it agreed to honour its warranties on Commission vehicles if blends containing up to 30% biodiesel are used, and the Commission is now trialling 23 vehicles in Perthshire on a 25% biodiesel blend, with no problems being experienced.
Looking ahead, the Forestry Commission is considering trying biodiesel blends in other applications, such as in tractors at its tree nurseries, in heating fuel at buildings that use gas oil, and in its forestry machines, such as harvesters and forwarders.
Notes
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The vehicle that runs on straight cooking oil requires some concentration by the driver. It must first be started on ordinary mineral diesel, and once the engine and the cooking-oil tank have been warmed up, the driver flicks a switch to change the fuel supply to the cooking oil. Then, near the end of the journey, the driver must switch back to diesel for a few miles to flush the oil from the fuel-injection system before turning off the engine.
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There is 20 pence per litre less fuel duty payable on biodiesel than on mineral diesel. However, this cost advantage is usually almost cancelled out by the costs of delivery to fuelling points.
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The Commission receives its biodiesel supplies from RIX Petroleum in Scotland and Petroplus in England. For further information about the biodiesel industry, contact Rory Clarke at Rix Petroleum on 01482 224422, or Terry Waldron at Petroplus, 01642 212385.
For more information on the Greening Government programme