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Diesel-Do Nicely at 50.5p a Litre

Posted on: Wednesday, 14 September 2005, 09:00 CDT

An innovative Shropshire company is combating crippling transport costs by turning a waste product into fuel.

Bewdley-based Pelican Foods realised that the waste vegetable oil it collected could be converted into biofuel and used to run its vehicles cut-price.

The company collects about 30 tonnes of waste oil a week from local catering establishments, which is then cleaned and exported abroad.

"The majority of the waste oil is exported to Europe to be used as biofuel," said Keith Coldrick, owner of Pelican Foods.

"It seemed ludicrous not to take advantage of the resource in the UK too."

The company decided to produce its own fuel using the waste oil and the "Fuelmeister" - a biofuel system based on a US design and developed by Cheltenham-based Green Fuels.

Mr Coldrick said: "We've been in business for 30 years, but fuel costs were becoming a big overhead.

"We now run seven commercial vehicles on biodiesel and, so far, we've managed to cut our fuel bills from pounds 3,200 to pounds 1,200 a month."

The Fuelmeister system is also accredited by HM Customs and Revenue, which means the biofuel it produces is entitled to a tax reduction.

At about 50.5 pence a litre, the waste oil fuel is almost half the cost of diesel prices.

Pelican was so impressed it has now become an official distributor for the product

Source: Birmingham Post; Birmingham (UK)

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