A group of friends are forming a biodiesel co-op in Kapiti, New Zealand, to reduce waste and lower their greenhouse gas emissions by 86%.
The co-op will collect cooking oil from local businesses and restaurants so they can filter and process it into a fuel that can be used in any diesel engine without modification. It uses biodiesel processor BioPro190 technology to convert the oil.
One of the key figures behind the project is Matt Lamason, founder and director of the People’s Coffee in Kapiti, who wanted a sustainable solution for the problem of waste cooking oil in his business.
“The idea came from visiting a small farmer in Australia who was making biodiesel in his backyard,” he said.
“I thought, we can do that – and here in NZ, we eat a lot of fried fish and chips. So the waste oil was a factor in seeing the gap in the market for a local, small-scale fuel project that has the potential to reproduce around NZ and maybe in the Pacific islands where fossil diesel is at very high prices.”
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