Biodiesel
To fuel the vehicle fleet, Commercial has invested in the first realtime blending system for sustainable biodiesel in Europe. With the unique ability to run any diesel vehicle on the carbon neutral fuel, Commercial has managed to reduce audited vehicle emissions by up to 80% per mile.
Not only that, but the fuel is locally sourced, which offers substantial economic and social benefits as well as enabling the company to have a very robust business continuity programme, and sustainably manufactured from a waste product that would otherwise fill our landfill sites. This exemplary use of biofuels was used as a case study by the EU BioNETT programme and Energy Saving Trust.
Commercial is currently actively involved in promoting the appropriate use of high blend sustainable biodiesel through organisations such as the Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership.
When plants grow, they absorb carbon from the atmosphere and make it into solid biomass. This biomass is what animals, like humans, eat to give us energy. It can also be burnt as biofuel. When it is burnt, the carbon goes back into the atmosphere, a process known as the carbon cycle. As the amount of carbon released by burning biomass is the same as the amount the plants absorbed, this means that the fuel is carbon neutral. Biofuels include wood and biodiesel.
The problem with biofuels is that many of the same things grown as fuel can also be used for food. This “food or fuel” debate has led to concerns about biodiesel made from soya oil, for example. In addition, some biofuels are grown on marginal land and in tropical plantations which have other environmental and ecological issues.