Biofuel made from pasties to power cars
Cornish pasties are to be used to power cars after a green fuel company in North East Lincolnshire announced plans to use them to make biodiesel.
Greenergy is to take pasties, pies, crisps and other food waste that would otherwise have gone to landfill, to extract the oil they contain.
It will then be blended with diesel and sold at petrol stations across Britain.
The firm has invested £50m in its production facility in Immingham to enable it to process used cooking oils.
It is now beginning to make biodiesel from high fat solid foods such as pies, sausage rolls, pastry and crisps which are not fit for sale because they are mis-shapen, overcooked or past their sell-by date.
These food products, which can contain between 25% and 30% oil and fat, are sourced from a variety of food manufacturers nationally.
Other suitable foods include taramasalata and oil from fish frying containing high quantities of breadcrumbs.
The nearby port of Grimsby is one of the largest food processing centres in Europe.
Andrew Owens, Greenergy's chief executive, said: "We've always tried to find ways of reducing the environmental impact of our fuel and as oil prices continue to rise, it's obviously important to develop alternative sources of fuel.
"The quantities of biodiesel that we're currently producing from solid food waste are small, but we're expecting to scale up so that this soon becomes a significant proportion of our biodiesel.
"It's great to be taking these products, which would otherwise have gone to landfill or compost, and turning them into a new source of fuel."
Greenergy is working with Brocklesby Ltd, which developed a method of extracting oil from food waste. It then purifies the oil further and turns it into biodiesel.
Any food solids that remain are dried and either composted or used to produce energy through anaerobic digestion.
But the firm has plans to use the waste to make solid biomass fuel pellets or briquettes, or more fuel for cars in the form of bioethanol.