FROM COOKING WASTE TO CLEANER FUEL ON THE ROAD 

Imagine a world in which childhood asthma is in decline, countries are actually reversing the build up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and traffic jams are suffused with the ambient smell of frying doughnuts. It could happen and a Norfolk company is leading the way to try and ensure it does.

Every week, 50 tonnes of used vegetable oil collected from restaurants, cafeterias and factories throughout England are delivered to a small business unit at Shipdham, near Dereham. Following the process carried out there, the oil used only a few hours previously to cook our chips, fry-ups and fish suppers is given a new lease of life which, given the right programme of expansion and encouragement, could relieve some of the serious environmental problems facing our planet.

In its new incarnation, what was once discarded cooking oil is now biodiesel, an environmentally friendly alternative to regular diesel offering exactly the same performance levels as its hydrocarbon-based cousin but none of the disadvantages associated with greenhouse-gas pollution.

And thanks to the enthusiastic leadership of Norfolk entrepreneur Dennis Thouless, whose firm Global Commodities UK is now producing 4½ million litres of biodiesel a year from the Shipdham factory near Dereham, it could very soon offer a lifeline not only to East Anglians hit by rising fuel costs, but farmers desperately searching for that all important path out of economic despair - a profitable crop.

At a time when most people are planning a happy retirement punctuated with nothing more strenuous than the odd round of golf, 68-year-old Mr Thouless looked back on a career in pharmaceuticals and property development and decided it was time to do his bit for future generations. "I was looking at where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do, and I thought it was time to start putting something back into the world after getting so much out of it" he said.

"I have grandchildren and great grandchildren, and wondered how they are going to cope with the environmental situation in 20 years' time. Global warming and the greenhouse effect are both very serious problems, and I don't think most people in East Anglia quite realise how little a rise in sea level is needed for us to lose most of the region."

He added: "We are not cavemen and have the technology to prevent this situation by reducing so much of the rubbish we put in to the atmosphere. If we do what we can now to ease the problem, there may be other solutions available in the future, but the point is we must start acting now."

Mr Thouless, who radiates passionate enthusiasm for his chosen cause, settled on the fledging biodiesel industry and spent three years, much of it spent experimenting in garage laboratories, developing his product, christened driveECO, and planning the expansion of the business. "Biodiesel is made by using vegetable oil, recovered or virgin, which is then mixed with chemicals turning it into two streams, one the biodiesel itself and the other called a soap stock," He said. "The fuel can run any diesel engine without any modifications at all, and CO2 emission is completely sustainable, in that any released is what the plant consumed in the first place. "There is no emission of particulates, the very, very fine particles which we can't see but breathe in whenever we take in diesel fumes, and which have been linked to asthma and cancer. " He added: "Biodiesel offers complete biodegradability in 28 days - you can wash your hands in it, you can even drink it and yet it will give you the same mileage and engine performance as diesel. "Furthermore, it can put back the lubricity which is lost in ultra-low sulphur diesel"

The advantages of biodiesel are clear. What is needed now are the necessary carrots-on-sticks to persuade people to use it - and on July 25, the Government started down that road by reducing the excise duty on the substance from 45p a litre to 25p.

Commenting on the move, first mooted in last year's budget, customs Minister John Healey said: "While drivers of both on and off-road vehicles will welcome cheaper fuel, we will all benefit from the reduced gas emissions achievable through the Government's commitment to promoting environmentally-friendly fuels through lower tax rates. "The oil industry can also benefit through the investment and employment opportunities biofuels provide, and I am pleased to see signs that the reduced duty rate is already encouraging increased biodiesel production facilities."

The reduction cleared the way for competitive production of biodiesel, now roughly two to four pence a litre cheaper than diesel, and was welcomed by Mr Thouless who said "Our neighbours in Europe, i.e. France and Germany, have been promoting the use of biodiesel for years via tax reductions - Britain has taken the first big step in the right direction."

Meanwhile, he is working hard to expand the use of driveECO throughout Norfolk and beyond. Two Norfolk haulage firms - Woody's and John Mack - are using mixtures of driveECO and regular diesel in their trucks, and so far response has been extremely positive. "We have been running driveECO in all our 30 trucks on a 25pc mix and it hasn't made any difference at all to engine performance or fuel economy," said general manager Robin Baker. "We have been impressed with it and, with our cost margins being so tight all the time, the difference of four pence a litre has been very welcome. It might not sound like much, but we get through 18,000 to 19,000 litres of fuel every week and it all adds up." driveECO is also taking to the water. Norfolk Broads boathire company Camelot Craft is now carrying out trials with a single craft filled with 25pc driveECO mix. A satisfactory outcome could spell the end for diesel-driven boats on the Broads and well-documented pollution problems. While the trials go on, Mr Thouless is continuing plans to make driveECO handpump a familiar feature of filling stations throughout East Anglia.

"At the moment, we are working with a company which will do the distribution for us," he added. "Within the next three months, we intend to be supplying 40 garages across East Anglia."

As the supply network expands, Global Commodities will have to increase production levels - a base which Mr Thouless has already covered. "We can produce 10 million litres a year at Shipdham, and I am planning a plant in Lowestoft which will be producing 60 million a year and can go up to three times that capacity if necessary," he said.

Once the Lowestoft plant is in operation, a total of 40 people will be employed directly by Global Commodities, with considerably more involved in auxiliary roles such as distribution. Despite the duty reduction, Global Commodities and other firms involved in the biodiesel industry may have their work cut out persuading consumers to change lifelong habits and switch pumps, even if doing so helps the environment and is cheaper - but Mr Thouless has faith in future generations.

"Certainly over the last 10 years, people have become more environmentally aware," he said. "When I set this company up, I had a definite vision about how I wanted it to develop, and as part of those plans, we have a lecture theatre to put schools in the picture about the environment. "I believe we can convert people. At the moment, it is us doing the teaching, but in a few years time it will be our children who will have the ideas and be much more flexible than the average adult now." He added: "Things, have to change. We are running out of fossil fuels very fast. There will always be oil in the earth, but within 20 years we will run out of what we can recover at a reasonable cost."

A range of additional products from Global Commodities should ensure the venture enjoys sufficient publicity in the short term. Mr Thouless is planning to sell soap developed from the second by-product of the biodiesel process, and engine-cleaning products as well as an insect repellent which can be sprayed directly on to food are also in the pipeline.

The future looks good for Global Commodities and, indeed, a little rosier for the Earth if we utilise such organisations as part of a genuine effort to combat the Greenhouse Effect. But there is one extra dimension to the business that Mr Thouless is keen to exploit, and it requires Government help. "We can now produce and sell biodiesel at or below the price of hydrocarbon diesel," he said. "But this can only be done with recovered vegetable oils, not virgin oils. "Other countries are able to afford manufacturing biodiesel from oil seed rape because their countries have reduced the excise duty on biodiesel to zero, and that is the kind of move we need in the UK."

A worldwide commodity, rape oil costs about £300 per tonne and can be grown on set-aside land provided it is used for industrial purposes. If a manufacturer was capable of turning it into biodiesel cost-effectively, oil seed rape could prove a highly profitable crop for cash-strapped farmers. "I am involved with a lot of farmers who are encouraging me to set up co-operatives," said Mr Thouless. "They could combine seed suppliers and growers, while we could charge a toll for crushing the rape centrally or even put out smaller rape-crushing units around the area.

"It is no good us putting any of this into position until the government reduces the excise duty even further. We really need the Government behind us on this one." Unfortunately, Mr Thouless has not exactly enjoyed non-stop financial support from the Government so far, despite his faultless credentials as the kind of entrepreneur we should surely be stopping at nothing to encourage.

"We have to reduce atmospheric emissions under the Kyoto agreements and this is just the kind of venture that will really help us to do so," he said. "But I have had no help at all. The whole thing has been entirely self-funded. If I had opened this company up in any other country, I would have had 80% grant aid."

From the Eastern Daily Press – August 2002