Fish 'n' Chip Fuel Cooked Up

Fish 'n' chip oil could soon be used to power engines after a clean energy company in New Zealand has pioneered a method using cooking oil to fuel machinery and trucks.

The Waiheke Island trust in New Zealand has launched its own biodiesel production facility which it hopes will produce enough first class fuel to run recycling depot Cleanstream's trucks, diggers and machinery.

Warmed cooking oil is shaken up to separate the glycerol from the biodiesel which is washed, decanted and filtered to produce a high grade fuel which can be poured straight into engines.

In a trial run, eight tonnes of cooking oil was collected in less than four months from takeaways and restaurants on Waiheke, the director of Cleanstream told the New Zealand Herald newspaper.

The trust worked with Auckland University's Epics (engineering projects in community service) team.

By staff writer