Carillion has launched an innovative six-month trial to recycle waste cooking oil into vehicle fuel at its Regional Prime Contract on Catterick Garrison.

The project, set up by Rupert Webster and Nigel George of Carillion Planned Maintenance and supported by Carillion Enterprise and Defence Estates, converts used chip fat from the site’s 38 canteens into fuel to run a diesel-engined Peugeot Expert van.

If the trial proves successful, it could cut annual fuel costs by around £2,500.

The project uses a Green Fuel FuelPod to convert the cooking oil and added ethanol into 40-litres of fuel, with no waste product, in around eight hours.

“We wanted to play our part in reducing emissions at Catterick and did a lot of investigation into electric vehicles, but when we started to look at using waste oil, the benefits were immediately obvious,” said Webster.

“The rig we’ve now got on site enables us to produce 40 litres of biofuel per week, which is enough to run the van, and we’ll be analysing the cost benefits at the end of the six-month trial.”