£50m boost to turn pasties to petrol
Fuel company Greenergy has announced plans to plough £50m into its Lincolnshire site to develop methods of using crisps, pasties, pies and sausage rolls to create an alternative source of petrol.
The company has teamed up with Yorkshire-based Brocklesby, which specialises in recovering edible oils, to convert unsaleable food items into biofuel.
High-fat solid foods such as pasties and pies, which would previously have gone to landfill or compost, are now being converted for biofuel and energy production.
Greenergy already uses more than 20 million litres a month of biodiesel from used cooking oil.
The company said it wants to extend its use of the products and is now beginning to make biodiesel from high fat solid foods such as pies, sausage rolls, pastry and crisps which are not fit for sale because they are misshapen, overcooked or past their sell by date.
The oils and fats in the foods are extracted through a process developed by Brocklesby and are then further purified by Greenergy. The oils and fats are then clean enough to be suitable for conversion into biodiesel, and the finished product is blended in small quantities into the diesel that Greenergy supplies to petrol stations.
Andrew Owens, Greenergy chief executive, said: "The quantities of biodiesel that we’re currently producing from solid food waste are small, but we’re expecting to scale up so that this soon becomes a significant proportion of our biodiesel. To put it into context, just one of these new facilities could handle enough waste pies or crisps to fill a cruise ship. With multiple plants, the potential for this kind of technology to reduce fuel emissions is considerable.
"It's great to be taking these products, which would otherwise have gone to landfill or compost, and turning them into a new source of fuel."
