04/07/2005

Greener road fuel plans announced

A new process for producing greener road fuels is to be piloted in a project launched today.

The project, part of government plans to find alternative transport fuels, aims to encourage companies to investigate the use of hydrogenation.

Hydrogenation is the process of mixing biomass (raw oils such as rapeseed) with conventional diesel through heating in the refinery process. The fuel produced is virtually indistinguishable from normal road diesel, but is potentially more environmentally friendly, because it contains less fossil fuels and uses renewable biomass.

It is also close in chemical compostion to conventional diesel, so could be used in existing vehicles, without affecting performance or fuel consumption.

The project also includes plans to offer a duty concession on all fuel produced within the pilot scheme and, depending on the success and the data produced, there are also plans to encourage road diesel produced using hydrogenation in order to encourage the wider use of the process.

Commenting on the project, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, John Healey said: “Thanks to the duty incentives we have introduced over the last few years, the use of biofuels in the UK has grown from almost nothing to nearly 9 million litres of fuel a month. Hydrogenation is at the cutting edge of green fuel technology and we intend to lead the rest of Europe in this area by encouraging, in partnership with refiners, the development of this process. Hydrogenation could provide greener road fuel on a larger scale for motorists in the UK. This invitation to bid for government support will help us to test the potential of a biomass based fuel.”

(KMcA/MB)

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