Cheshire first to use green diesel

Cheshire is to become the first county council in the UK to supply a revolutionary "green" fuel to its 250-strong fleet of vehicles. e-diesel, also known as bio-diesel, is a renewable fuel produced from waste vegetable oil.

The waste oil used to cook thousands of restaurant, pub and canteen meals, as well as oil collected from food manufacturers, including even a poppadom factory, can be used to power vehicles. It is refined at a plant in Frodsham run by Stephen Whittaker and his company, ESL Biofuels, and converted into a fuel suitable for vehicles.

E-diesel produces a fraction of the emissions found in regular fuel, is fully biodegradable and can be used in most engines without the need for conversion. Crucially it costs no more than regular diesel.

County councillor Steve Wilkinson, chairman of the Environment Strategic Panel, said: "We trialled e-diesel over a three-year period in our vehicles at Tatton Park and we were very impressed with the results. The product is environ-mentally friendly, competitively priced and is just as effective and efficient. It is a fuel of the future."

"An additional benefit is that we are sourcing the product from a Cheshire-based supplier and therefore helping the local economy. Although there are other local authorities which power some of their vehicles with e-diesel, we believe we are the first county council to make this fuel available to its entire diesel-powered fleet."

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"Nuttall as a company is committed to environmental good practice and innovation. Part of our commitment to Cheshire County Council while bidding for this contract, which started in October 2004, was to investigate the use of alternative environmentally beneficial fuel sources.

"In conjunction with Cheshire County Council we are currently trialling the use of bio-diesel in some of our vehicles to assess the environmental benefits and the performance against traditional fuel."

Steve Addison, Project Director for Edmund Nuttall