Bioliquid is often overlooked by organisations when they look to reduce carbon emissions by moving heating or power generation away from fossil fuels to ‘renewables’.
According to Andrew Monaghan, commercial director at a specialist bioliquid producer, UK Renewable Fuels (UKRF), “although it doesn’t have the glamour of some of the ‘new’ technologies, and bioliquids suffer something of a bad press from the environmental lobby, by any rational and informed reasoning, it really should be first on the list”. Here he outlines why, as he puts it, ‘second generation bioliquids should be the renewable of choice for many applications, as either the primary or a supplementary source of energy’.
It is probably appropriate to start any article on ‘biodiesel’ by dispelling the myth that all liquid biofuels – and biodiesel in particular – are somehow harmful to the environment… clearing rainforests for palm oil plantations, or using land to grow fuel crops rather than food.
In the UK most bioliquids are used for transport, and biodiesel makes up just under half of that (45%), with the petrol substitute, bioethanol, making up the rest. Yet while it is true that almost 100% of bioethanol is made from virgin oils, over 94% of all biodiesel made in the UK comes from waste oils – mainly used cooking oil. It is not the ‘villain’ it is often made out to be.
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