Kent recyclers oiling the wheels of power

25 March, 2010, 0 comments

Coverage of this story appeared in the Kentish Express, March 2010.

Keen recyclers of used cooking oil in Kent can give themselves a firm pat on the back after helping the county to collect over 18 tonnes of oil over the scheme was launched last year.

The used cooking oil, enough to fill over 90 bathtubs, is collected and refined by Living Fuels and used to produce an environmentally friendly fuel called LF100. The biofuel is then used to generate electricity.

“We’re absolutely delighted by the success of the scheme in Kent” said Daniel Gillert of Living Fuels. “People here have really taken this new method of recycling in their stride and as a result have made Kent the top county for recycling used cooking oil in the country.

“What’s more, the 18,000 litres of used cooking oil collected in Kent will go towards powering a dedicated generator at the Port of Dover, providing a large proportion of the port’s annual heat and power from a truly green source.”

“Over the next 12 months, we hope to double the volume of UCO collected in Kent” continued Daniel, “and, if every resident recycles just half a litre of their used cooking oil over the course of the year then we’ll be set to smash this target.”

Used cooking oil can be recycled at the local Household Waste Recycling Centre.  For more information, please visit www.kent.gov.uk.

Living Fuels brings investment to East Anglia

12 March, 2010, 0 comments

Coverage of this story has appeared in Business Weekly and Eastern Daily Press, March 2010.

A Hockwold-based energy and biofuels company, Living Fuels, has announced plans to invest almost two million pounds in capital development in East Anglia during 2010. 

This comes on top of a promise to recruit at least five new team members across site management, service engineering and collections – doubling the size of the team.

Living Fuels’ commercial manager, Daniel Gillert, explains: “We’ve been working out of Hockwold, near Thetford, for more than three years. 

“In that time, we’ve grown from two people and a van to an operation which collects used cooking oil from 180 local authority recycling centres around the UK – 54 of those in East Anglia.  We also collect from more than 350 schools and five prisons in the region.  To date, we have recovered over 110,000 litres of used cooking oil in East Anglia.”

Living Fuels, which is part of the Renewable Energy Generation Group, has developed a recovery process which turns the used cooking oil into a fuel – LF100 – which is then used to generate electricity and heat.

“Just one litre of used cooking oil,” continues Gillert, “can generate enough electricity to power an energy-saving light bulb for 225 hours or make 240 cups of tea.  If everyone in East Anglia recycled just one litre of cooking oil, then we’d be able to generate enough electricity to power over 2,000 average households for a year.”

On hearing the news of Living Fuels’ investment plans, Cllr Ian Monson, Cabinet member for Waste and Environment at Norfolk County Council, commented: 

“It is really good news that this local company has been able to make such a difference to the regional (and national) recycling effort. 

“Since Living Fuels started collecting used cooking oil from our recycling sites around the county, we’ve been able to prevent a large volume of oil being poured down drains or sent to landfill.

“This investment in the region is good news for Living Fuels – but even better news for the county’s recycling agenda.  It is really positive that – in partnership with Living Fuels – the county can continue to offer a local solution for a waste product that used to be so difficult to dispose of.”

The company has a processing depot at Hockwold, which uses electricity and heat produced by LF100 as part of a trial, and a power station at Bentwaters, near Rendlesham, totalling a capital investment of more than three million pounds in the region to date.

Milton Keynes: Recycle your cooking oil

23 February, 2010, 0 comments

Coverage of this story appeared in MK News, February 2010.

Residents and businesses in Milton Keynes can now recycle old cooking oil at their local tip.

New collection tanks have been placed at the Bleak Hall, New Bradwell and Newport Pagnell Community Recycling Centres (CRCs).

The oil will be processed into a bio fuel called LF100, which is then used to produce electricity.

The oil from one of the full collection tanks, which hold 1,250 litres, can be used to generate sufficient electricity to power an average family home for a whole year.

Andy Hudson, chief waste management engineer for Milton Keynes Council said: "This new facility provides an excellent way of re using
the waste to make energy.

"Cooking oil has historically been difficult to dispose of.

"Usually it ends up in landfill sites or being illegally poured down the sink where it blocks sewers and has a devastating impact on local wildlife."

He added: "Another great aspect of the service is that it's being provided to Milton Keynes residents free of charge.

"Living Fuels, the company behind the innovative scheme, collect the oil from Community Recycling Centres at no cost and as often as required."

Sandwell Chronicle: Turning old chip oil into energy to cut carbon

19 February, 2010, 0 comments

Coverage of this launch appeared in the Sandwell Chronicle, 19 February 2010.

Ever thought of recycling your used cooking oil?

Thanks to an innovative new service at Shidas Lane household recycling centre in Oldbury, Sandwell residents can now add used cooking oil to their recycling routine.

The new collection tanks are designed to hold up to 1,250 litres of used cooking oil.  Once eco-friendly residents have deposited the oil, it is collected and processed into a biofuel called LF100, which is then used to produce electricity.

Councillor Mahboob Hussain, Sandwell Council’s deputy leader and cabinet member for neighbourhoods & housing, said: “This new service is an excellent way of re-using a product that would have previously ended up being thrown away. Often used cooking oil is poured down the sink, but this can block sewers and has a devastating impact on local wildlife.”

He continued: “I thank Sandwell residents for their recycling efforts and encourage them to support this extra service now available, which will help us to continue reducing our waste as a borough.”

Once full, the oil from the collection tank can be used to generate sufficient electricity to power an average family home for a whole year.

Dan Gillert, commercial manager at Living Fuels, the company behind the innovative scheme, said: “Every time another collection service is launched, it’s an opportunity to get over the message that used cooking oil causes major environmental damage when poured down the sink.  It costs water companies literally millions to clear blockages caused in sewers by this build-up of oils.

“Added to this, the use of used cooking oil in electricity generation reduces carbon emissions meaning that everyone can play a part in building Britain’s renewable energy capacity.”

May Gurney – which manages the household recycling centre – has welcomed the new service, which fully supports its ambitions to extract the maximum value from a wider range of recycled materials in order to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill or down the drain.

The centre is located on Shidas Lane in Oldbury (B69 2BP) and is currently open between 8am and 6pm Monday to Friday and between 8am and 4pm Saturday and Sunday.

For more information on the wide range of recycling services available at the local household recycling centre, visit www.sandwell.gov.uk/recycling

To check if the centre is busy before leaving your home you can call 0845 352 0123 or view the web cam at http://sandwell.ectrecycling.co.uk:3000

Residents can sign up to the reduce, reuse, recycle for Sandwell e-newsletter by emailing ‘subscribe’ to recycleforsandwell@sandwell.gov.uk

Reading: Old chip fat will power homes

02 February, 2010, 0 comments

Coverage of this story appeared in the Reading Post, February 2010.

Finished cooking your chips?

If so, don’t throw out the used fat – you can now take it to be recycled instead.

Household Waste Recycling Centres at Smallmead in Reading and Longshot Lane in Bracknell have now got tanks that will take cooking oil and turn it into clean electricity.

Each tank can hold 1,000 litres, which will produce enough electricity to power an average household for a whole year.

The oil tanks were installed by Living Fuels – part of the British Group Renewable Energy Generation – in partnership with re3, the partnership between Bracknell Forest, Reading and Wokingham Councils and Waste Recycling Group (WRG) which aims to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill and increase recycling over a 25 year period.

Cllr Rob Stanton, chair of the re3 board, said: “Cooking oil can be a real problem when poured away into the drainage system.

“I’m delighted that re3 has come up trumps with an efficient and innovative system to deal with this problem and I encourage as many residents as possible to use it.”

Residents who want to find out more can now access re3’s newlydesigned website at www.re3.org.uk.

Energy Engineering: Fuel for thought

12 January, 2010, 0 comments

This article appeared in the Jan/Feb 2010 edition of Energy Engineering magazine.

In July 2009, secretary of state for energy and climate change Ed Miliband suggested that we will need to produce enough energy from renewable sources by 2020 to supply the equivalent of nearly all 26 million homes in the UK with their current electricity needs and four million homes with their current heating needs.
 
And, claims the UK Low Carbon Transition Plan July 2009, we must do so largely without emitting greenhouse gases.

While carbon trading and deforestation may have been high on the agenda at the climate change talks in Copenhagen in December (2009), Ian Collins, managing director at Living Fuels, explains how something as simple as used cooking oil could actually provide the answer.

Living Fuels, a subsidiary of AIM listed REG Limited, has perfected a method of refining used cooking oil into a biofuel – LF100 – which can be used to generate clean electricity.

Living Fuels’ plans to produce combined heat and power (CHP), from LF100 on a large scale, fall directly within the remit of the UK Renewable Energy Strategy (July 2009). 

“Just one litre of used cooking oil,” says Collins, “when refined into LF100, can fuel a generator to generate 4.5 kWh of electricity.  That’s enough to make 240 cups of tea, run an A-rated dishwasher for three hours or power an energy saving light bulb for 225 hours.”

He continues: “annually, there is an estimated ¼ million tonnes of UCO being produced in the UK.  That’s enough to power ¼ million average homes for a whole year.  UCO will not solve the energy crisis on its own, but, it will certainly make a big impact.”

Living Fuels is working with over 40 local authorities and London Borough Councils on an innovative scheme which places UCO collection tanks into household waste and recycling centres (HWRCs).  There are more than 200  tanks in place at sites around the country where householders can recycle their domestic UCO.

On the commercial side, more than 500 schools and 16 prisons are signed up to the scheme to recycle their UCO to generate clean electricity.  Living Fuels is also working with a number of businesses in the catering, food processing and hospitality sectors.

However, says Collins: “the gulf between UK strategy and regulation means that there is currently a greater legislative and financial burden on our carbon-neutral fuel than less environmentally-friendly, fossil fuel counterparts such as diesel. 

“This is because, despite being classified an end of waste (EoW) product by the Environment Agency – which means the fuel ceases to be a waste product once it completes our recovery and testing process – LF100 is still subject to the Environmental Permitting Regulations 2007 (EPR).”

The EPR states that all waste and combustion activities above certain thresholds must either be granted an exemption under the regulations or hold a permit before operations begin.  Living Fuels, like other companies in the renewable energy sector, is affected by the wording in Section 1.1 which states that ‘fuels manufactured from or including waste’ require a permit as the oil from which LF100 is created was once classified a waste product.

The EPR legislation does not take into account the legal and technical status of EoW fuel products. 

“We’ve got the support for this – as evidenced by the number of individuals, local authorities and private companies which now recycle their used cooking oil,” says Collins, “and also the interest we’ve had from diverse sectors for the installation of localised CHP units running on LF100.

“Like many companies in the renewable energy sector, we’re now challenging the discrepancies between waste reduction and renewable energy strategies and current UK legislation. 

“This incompatibility between strategy and legislation is hampering the development of large scale innovative solutions to bring renewable energy technologies to market.”

We need to start thinking about the infrastructure now says Collins.  “The existing power network was not designed to cope with the way we now consume electricity or the diverse sources from which it can be obtained. 

“If we are to truly make a success of the wide variety of renewable energy technologies which are being funded by the private sector then we need to make sure that the infrastructure and legislation is in place to handle it.

“And that means,” says Collins, “that the government will need to amend the regulations so that it’s commercially viable for companies to recycle the vast quantities of UCO – currently clogging our sewers and filling our landfill sites – into renewable energy.

“If the legislation does not catch up with strategy and technology then we will miss a real opportunity to build the renewable energy capacity of the UK while supporting the drive to become a zero waste nation.

“Otherwise, the UK will remain at a major disadvantage in comparison with Europe where such restrictions do not apply.”

Renewable energy meets immovable object in UK legislation

01 December, 2009, 0 comments

UK renewable energy provider Living Fuels, a subsidiary of AIM listed REG Bio-Power, is appealing to the UK government to address discrepancies between renewable energy strategy and current UK legislation.  These discrepancies are holding back many companies from bringing large scale renewable technologies to market.

The organisation has perfected a method of refining used cooking oil into a biofuel – LF100 – which can be used to generate clean electricity.  Living Fuels is now calling out for the government to change current legislation which continues to treat their fuel as a waste product and imposes additional financial restrictions which make the process commercially unviable.

Living Fuels’ plans to produce combined heat and power (CHP), from LF100 on a large scale, fall directly within the remit of the UK Renewable Energy Strategy (July 2009). 

However, says Ian Collins, managing director of Living Fuels: “the gulf between strategy and regulation means that there is currently a greater legislative and financial burden on our carbon-neutral fuel than less environmentally-friendly fossil fuel counterparts such as diesel. 

“This is because, despite being classified an end of waste (EoW) product by the Environment Agency – which means the fuel ceases to be a waste product once it leaves the filtration process – LF100 is still subject to the Environmental Permitting Regulations 2007 (EPR).”

The EPR states that all waste and combustion activities above certain thresholds must either be granted an exemption under the regulations or hold a permit before operations begin.  Living Fuels, like other companies in the renewable energy sector, is affected by the wording in Section 1.1 which states that ‘fuels manufactured from or including waste’ require a permit as the oil they are created from was once classified a waste product.

The EPR legislation does not take into account the legal and technical status of EoW fuel products. 

Collins continues: “recycling used cooking oil not only supports the public sector’s commitment to the environment but also the wants and needs of many commercial businesses looking to increase their sustainability.

“There is an estimated ¼ million tonnes of UCO being produced in the UK annually.  That’s enough to power ¼ million average homes for a whole year.  UCO will not solve the energy crisis on its own, but, it will certainly make a big impact.

“However, at this point in time, the discrepancy in the Environmental Permitting Regulations means that many innovative, renewable energy initiatives are being exposed to inappropriate regulatory burden.”

Recycling & Waste World: Oil recycling held up by legislation blockage

25 November, 2009, 0 comments

Article published in Recycling & Waste World November 2009

It is estimated that over ¼ million tonnes of used cooking oil (UCO) is produced in the UK every year.  Historically, much of this has gone to landfill or, even worse, down the drains – where water companies spend more than £15 million each year in direct clean up of fats, oils and greases in our sewers.
 
Ian Collins, managing director at Living Fuels, explains how this could all be a thing of the past – just as soon as UK legislation has caught up with the government’s strategy on waste reduction and renewable energy.

Last month (October), environment secretary Hilary Benn argued that: “we must now work together to build a zero waste nation – where we reduce the resources we use, reuse and recycle all that we can and only landfill things that have absolutely no other use.”

Secretary of state for communities and local government John Denham added:  “If we continue to send recyclable and compostable waste to landfill we are missing a major opportunity to generate heat and energy and missing an opportunity to turn that waste into money.”

These statements are good news for the rapidly-expanding industry surrounding energy from waste. 

But, asks Ian Collins, managing director of Living Fuels, what of the companies which are working with materials that have legally ceased to be waste?

“Like many companies working on large scale innovative solutions to bring renewable energy technologies to market,” says Collins, “we’re appealing to the UK government to remedy the discrepancies between waste reduction and renewable energy strategies and current UK legislation. 

“Clearly the Government’s strategy and publicity about renewable energy generation and waste reduction is not in tune with the existing legislative burden.”
Living Fuels, a subsidiary of AIM listed REG Bio-Power, has perfected a method of refining used cooking oil into a biofuel – LF100 – which can be used to generate clean electricity.

Living Fuels’ plans to produce combined heat and power (CHP), from LF100 on a large scale, fall directly within the remit of the UK Renewable Energy Strategy (July 2009). 

However, says Collins: “the gulf between strategy and regulation means that there is currently a greater legislative and financial burden on our carbon-neutral fuel than less environmentally-friendly, fossil fuel counterparts such as diesel. 

“This is because, despite being classified an end of waste (EoW) product by the Environment Agency – which means the fuel ceases to be a waste product once it leaves the filtration process – LF100 is still subject to the Environmental Permitting Regulations 2007 (EPR).”

The EPR states that all waste and combustion activities above certain thresholds must either be granted an exemption under the regulations or hold a permit before operations begin.  Living Fuels, like other companies in the renewable energy sector, is affected by the wording in Section 1.1 which states that ‘fuels manufactured from or including waste’ require a permit as the oil they are created from was once classified a waste product.

The EPR legislation does not take into account the legal and technical status of EoW fuel products. 

Collins continues: “it takes a lot of time and money to achieve EoW status and achieving this mark should mean that the fuel is treated as having ceased to be waste.  However, in reality the EPR continues to treat EoW fuels as a waste product.  That means a heavier financial and legislative burden than mineral diesel.”
However, says Collins, there is hope for the UCO renewable energy market.  “We’ve been working closely with our constituency MP, the Environment Agency, Defra and the environment secretary to raise awareness of the discrepancies in the legislation.

“A number of discussions have taken place in London in recent months.  These have opened the way to amending the regulations so that it’s commercially viable for companies to recycle the vast quantities of UCO – currently clogging our sewers and filling our landfill sites – into renewable energy.

“If the legislation does not catch up with strategy and technology then we will miss a real opportunity to build the renewable energy capacity of the UK while supporting the drive to become a zero waste nation.

“Otherwise, the UK will remain at a major disadvantage in comparison with Europe where such restrictions do not apply.”

Public sector sustainability

Living Fuels is working with over 34 local authorities and London Borough Councils on an innovative scheme which places UCO collection tanks into household waste and recycling centres (HWRCs).  There are more than 120 tanks in place at sites around the country with a further 20 due to be installed by the end of 2009.

Dan Gillert, commercial manager at Living Fuels, says: “recycling used cooking oil not only supports the public sector’s commitment to the environment but also the wants and needs of many commercial businesses looking to increase their sustainability.

“The introduction of used cooking oil to generate heat and power reduces carbon emissions and means that everyone – from the large food processors and catering companies down to the individual householder – can play their part in building Britain’s renewable energy capacity.”

In July 2009, secretary of state for energy and climate change Ed Miliband suggested that we will need to produce enough energy from renewable sources by 2020 to supply the equivalent of nearly all 26 million homes in the UK with their current electricity needs and four million homes with their current heating needs.  And, claims the UK Low Carbon Transition Plan July 2009, we must do so largely without emitting greenhouse gases.

“Just one litre of used cooking oil,” says Gillert, “when refined into LF100, can fuel a generator to generate 4.5 kWh of electricity.  That’s enough to make 240 cups of tea, run an A-rated dishwasher for three hours or power an energy saving light bulb for 225 hours.”

He continues: “there is an estimated ¼ million tonnes of UCO being produced in the UK every year.  That’s enough to power ¼ million average homes for a whole year.  UCO will not solve the energy crisis on its own, but, it will certainly make a big impact.”

EBEC 2009

14 October, 2009, 0 comments

UK legislation still penalises waste streams that could provide energy - Read More

RWM 2009

10 October, 2009, 0 comments

We have been featured in the 2009 RWM exhibition guide.

Please follow the links below to see the featured articles.

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Food Waste on the Menu at RWM 08 - Read More

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Legislation threatens innovation in renewable fuels - Read More