Now this doesn't sound like a bad idea
Dennis Thouless has been a leading light of the biofuel industry after spending four years developing a biodiesel processing plant at Shipdham in Norfolk. Now his latest project, a portable biodiesel plant, is set for the big time.
Mr Thouless's £45,000 machine means co-operatives of farmers, in the UK and overseas, could work together to use crops grown on their own land, in rotation, to create biodiesel - without having to import large amounts of crops or see rainforests cut down.
And measuring 16ft by 6ft on wheels, it is easily portable.Mr Thouless, who lives in Framlingham Earl, said: “I saw the future of biodiesel being in the development of community projects; establishing local production capability, processing oil from locally grown crops and supplying biodiesel to local businesses and consumers.”
It has been designed to produce 500 litres of fuel an hour from a variety of oil crops, including the high oil yield plant Jatropha, which grows on arid land not suitable for normal crops.
Mr Thouless's £45,000 machine means co-operatives of farmers, in the UK and overseas, could work together to use crops grown on their own land, in rotation, to create biodiesel - without having to import large amounts of crops or see rainforests cut down.
And measuring 16ft by 6ft on wheels, it is easily portable.Mr Thouless, who lives in Framlingham Earl, said: “I saw the future of biodiesel being in the development of community projects; establishing local production capability, processing oil from locally grown crops and supplying biodiesel to local businesses and consumers.”
It has been designed to produce 500 litres of fuel an hour from a variety of oil crops, including the high oil yield plant Jatropha, which grows on arid land not suitable for normal crops.
