Secondhand cooking oil in green heating trial

The Times
February 9, 2009
Lewis Smith

Norwich
Secondhand cooking oil is being used to heat homes and schools in an experiment designed to help householders to cut down their carbon emissions.
Biofuel derived from used vegetable oil and tallow has been mixed with kerosene and fed into domestic boilers for the world’s first trial of renewable heating oil.
Initial results from the trial, in and around the market town of Reepham, have delighted researchers, who said it was proving as efficient as fossil fuel while emitting less than half as much carbon dioxide. The trials are being led by the University of East Anglia’s Low Carbon Innovation Centre, the Clean Energy Consultancy and the oil industry.
Andrew Robertson, of Clean Energy Consultancy, said: “It’s preferable to use biofuel as a heating fuel rather than for transport.
“About a third of the energy from biofuel goes towards pushing the car forward – the other two thirds are wasted as heat and noise.
“In a boiler, 90 per cent is used in heating and only 10 per cent goes up the flue.”