Why Blue-NG is proud to generate electricity from vegetable oil

George Monbiot was wrong to criticise Blue-NG for its use of vegetable oil – we use UK-sourced rapeseed oil and not palm oil, writes chief executive Andrew Mercer
Andrew Mercer
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 27 October 2009 11.55 GMT
George Monbiot was wide of the mark when he criticised Blue-NG for its use of vegetable oil as a fuel to generate electricity and heat. This emphatically does not include palm oil, which we regard as unsustainable. But in combination with recycled vegetable oil (RVO) and biogas from waste, Blue-NG will use UK-sourced rapeseed oil (OSR). This is crude, unrefined vegetable oil sourced as close as possible to our generating plants. It should not be confused with biodiesel, which is a heavily processed and refined high-carbon product, mixed with 95% fossil fuel diesel. The Green party toured the country this summer during the European elections campaign in a bus fuelled by UK-sourced rapeseed biodiesel. Blue-NG believes that the best use of OSR is to generate renewable electricity and heat for our homes and industry, not to prolong our love affair with the internal combustion engine.
One of our combined heat and power (CHP) plants will power about 45,000 homes or keep 80,000 electric cars on the road. Over a year, it will produce 153,541MWh of electricity. It will save between 45 and 61,000 tonnes of CO2 per annum compared with the current grid mix of fuels. Its electrical efficiency ranges between 65% and 80%, making it one of the most efficient electrical generators in the world. Add in the heat and it tops 90% overall efficiency.
One tonne of biodiesel in cars reduces CO2 emissions by 1.235 tonnes. One tonne of crude OSR in our CHP plant produces savings of 2.304 tonnes. One hectare of land yields 1520 litres of crude rapeseed oil and 1445 litres of heavily refined biodiesel. So, twice as much land is needed to achieve the same CO2 savings if OSR is used to make biodiesel for the Green party's bus, rather than to generate power and heat. Both the renewable transport and energy sectors receive subsidies from the taxpayer to encourage take-up. It is over £50 a tonne cheaper to reduce CO2 via CHP than it is with cars.
There are millions of hectares of land lying idle across the EU. OSR and cereal crop prices have declined from last year's spikes. OSR and wheat are roughly the same price that they were 10 years ago. So, by using British-sourced OSR, already a long established "break crop" grown in rotation with cereals, we do not pose a threat to world food supplies or prices. The UK has surplus OSR and this year, British farmers lost money growing it. (They lost money growing wheat as well.)
For every 100 tonnes of OSR that we grow, only 13 tonnes is used to provide our fuel. The rest goes back into the food chain. 70 tonnes is ploughed back into the soil to replenish it for next year's cereal crop (alternatively it could be burned as biomass) and 16 tonnes is turned into animal feed (thereby reducing demand for imported soya) only 1% of the plant is waste.
What's more, our emissions have been modelled as being "negligible" which means that our plants can operate safely even in air quality management zones in cities.
We are proud to be a sustainable, low-carbon, clean, decentralised, local power and heat provider, that supports British farmers.
• Andrew Mercer is the chief executive of Blue-NG