Green fuels - Helping farmers save money

Green Fuels Ltd, Europe's largest biodiesel equipment reseller is helping farmers save money and minimise their carbon footprint in the process.

To date, it has not been cost-effective for farmers to make biodiesel for use on their farms, because red diesel has been cheaper. Instead, farmers have been selling their rapeseed on to crushers via middlemen, who crush the seed and sell on the oil for biodiesel production. With rising oil prices and dwindling stocks of oil, it is evident that over the next eighteen months, there will be an upward pressure on oil prices, therefore biodiesel manufacturing has become an increasingly viable option.

For those wishing to make their own, Green Fuels offer a large-scale Fuelmatic, which provides the most efficient route into commercial production of biodiesel. Farmers can now harvest the rape and process it into biodiesel, which can be used at 100 per cent concentration to drive their vehicles. The processor has a capacity of 7,000 litres a day and as it is an automated process, no additional labour is required.

In the past, many farmers have felt that the extra cost on the environment through transportation has taken away from the environmental benefits of creating this type of fuel. The Green Fuels Fuelmatic allows biodiesel production close to the source of input, therefore no additional transport is required and thus, the environmental impact is minimised.

In the UK alone, the predicted C02 savings are 200,000 tonnes per annum with a total cost saving of £20 million every year for farmers - so now's the time for farmers to plan ahead and get into producing biodiesel themselves. They can even apply for an interest free loan for the equipment from the Carbon Trust.

Green Fuels manufacture and sell biodiesel processing equipment that allows businesses, individuals and communities to produce their own biodiesel. In less than three years since the company started, Green Fuels has established more than 650 processors in the UK and Ireland, with a growing number in the rest of the world. In total their clients' systems produce over 170 million litres of biodiesel every year.

In September 2007, Green Fuels also supplied biodiesel for the Royal Train on a 900 mile trip by HRH The Prince of Wales, and also supplied biodiesel for the Top Gear team to compete in Silverstone's 24 hour endurance race (due to air on in November).