Tesco to Run Delivery Fleet on B50 Biodiesel in 2007

17 December 2006

BBC. Tesco, the UK’s largest supermarket chain, has announced plans to run its 2,000 diesel-fueled delivery vehicles on a B50 (50% biodiesel) blend starting in January 2007. Tesco said that using B50 blend would cut its greenhouse gas emissions by more than 70,000 tonnes per year.

The company calculated that the drop in emissions was equivalent to removing more than 20,000 medium-sized cars from the road, when calculated over the fleet’s working lifetime.

Tesco has been selling B5 (5% biodiesel) and E5 (5% ethanol) blends in its filling stations for the past two years. Tesco also has a 25% stake in biofuel producer Greenergy Fuels. (Cargill holds another 25%.)

Greenergy Fuels runs the UK’s largest single line biodiesel plant—at Immingham, on the east coast—with an annual production capacity of 100,000 tonnes (30 million gallons US). (Earlier post.) The company has already begun construction on a second phase of the plant that will double capacity to 200,000 tonnes per year (60 million gallons US).

Greenergy buys rapeseed from UK farmers for feedstock via its Field to Forecourt program. The company has issued contracts for the supply of 250,000 tonnes of rapeseed for harvest 2007 (equivalent to over 10% of the UK rapeseed crop) up from 150,000 tonnes for harvest 2006. The additional 100,000 tonnes of rapeseed is designed to guarantee adequate and secure supplies of feedstock for the additional production capacity.

Greenergy, together with Cargill, is considering building another plant, this one on the west coast in the Liverpool area. Cargill’s existing seed crush facilities in the port of Liverpool are a key factor in this potential investment.