Reuse of Vegetable Oil for Bio-Diesel Production

Summary

In light of the proven commercial success of bio-diesel manufacturing, a West Midlands chemical company, British Industrial Plastics Ltd. (BIP), had the potential to become the first UK supplier of bio-diesel. BIP has developed a novel technology and process to utilise waste vegetable oil into useable bio-diesel fuel. Another Humberside company, Rix Bio-diesel Ltd have had identified sources of waste vegetable oil and had a route market through its fuel distribution business, yet lacked the necessary technology. Through the National Industrial Symbiosis Program (NISP) BIP converted one of its plants to manufacture bio-diesel and in 2003 processed 15 million litres of waste vegetable oil into bio-diesel fuel.

Industry

Industry Sector	Specific Industry
Energy utility sector	Rix Bio-Diesel Ltd
Manufacturing sector	British Industrial Plastics Ltd

Region

Humberside, United Kingdom.

Applied Technologies

• A novel technology and process to utilise waste vegetable oil into useable bio-diesel fuel.

Triple Bottom Line Aspects (direct at operational level)

Economic	Potential savings in waste disposal costs for vegetable oil companies Utilise commercially successful bio-diesel manufacturing
Environment	An increase in environmentally friendly bio-diesel Decrease of waste vegetable oil going to landfill
Social	Increased job opportunities Safe guard a large number of jobs in the waste oil collection business

Additional Comments

None.

References

• NISP (2004) "National Industrial Symbiosis Programme: A Year of Achievement", National Industrial Symbiosis Programme, UK , Available at: www.nisp.org.uk

Last Update

18 January 2007