Vegetable oil fuelled fleet option for Mid and East Antrim Borough Council

Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council could soon be the first local authority in Northern Ireland to have a vehicle fleet fuelled on vegetable oil.
Watch more of our videos on Shots! 
and live on Freeview channel 276
Visit Shots! now

Councillors are to consider fresh options to improve efficiency of vehicles and  reduce carbon emissions in line with the local authority’s Climate Change Action Plan.

Options include a pilot to road-test low emission fuels such as hydrogen, electric and hydrotreated vegetable oil with potential partnership opportunities with other public sector organisations such as Translink being considered.

A report to councillors says that specially-treated vegetable oil  derived from

Vegetable oil could be the fuel of the future.Vegetable oil could be the fuel of the future.
Vegetable oil could be the fuel of the future.

used cooking oils, residue animal fats from food processing and non-food

grade crops can be a direct replacement for diesel but is 15 per cent more expensive and would result in an increased cost of £60,000 per annum to fuel the fleet although it can achieve up to 90 per cent reduction in carbon emissions.

Fifteen vehicles have been identified as suitable for a three-month pilot at a cost of £2,500.

A two-day trial of a 26-tonne electric-powered bin lorry has been proposed. The council currently operates two small electric powered vans.

Councillors will consider the fuel pilots at their October meeting when they meet on Monday evening.

Michelle Weir, Local Democracy Reporter

--

Click here to read: Private enforcement firm being looked at in Antrim and Newtownabbey litter fight

--

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We’re more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers.
Please consider purchasing a copy of the paper. You can also support trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription of the News Letter.