RECIPE:

1. Take a few thousand tons of household waste.

2. Cover with plastic and earth.

3. Leave to ferment for a year or two.

4. Insert pipe and draw off methane.

5. Pump methane into vans.

6. Drive vans with a very big environmental grin on face.

If this sounds like a joke, think again. Simplistic yes, but basically that’s exactly how Gasrec makes its methane – and you’d have to ask how much more environmentally-friendly can a fuel be?

Gasrec started by buying the extraction rights to a landfill site at Albury near Guildford.

The fuel is pumped out of the ground, cleaned up and frozen at -160 degrees ready for transportation.

Doug Leaf, Gasrec’s development manager, told Fleet Van: “We are hearing a lot about alternative fuels at present – hydrogen, fuel-cells and suchlike – but those things are for the future.

“Bio-methane is here now, it’s amazingly clean and it will save money over conventional diesel.”

One of the big problems with the surge in LPG a few of years back was that cost-effectiveness largely depended on a Government subsidy, which was suddenly withdrawn.

Leaf said: “We don’t need subsidies. Because our fuel is made from waste, we aren’t dependent on the price of crude oil.

"Therefore we know what our costs will be and can fix our prices for two or three years ahead.”

One of the problems that may put fleets off from choosing bio-methane is that a fuel bunker and pump would have to be set up at a depot.

But Leaf pointed out that fleets won’t have to pay upfront for this facility.

He said: “There is no capital outlay for the fleet operator.

“We install the supply and give training to the operators on filling up, health and safety, etc, and the money is recouped by charging a little extra on top for the gas.

"But the fuel savings we are quoting – 30% over diesel in the case of Camden Council – come after we have charged for the bunkering.”

One of the problems already highlighted is that at present, there is no infrastructure for the general public to buy bio-methane so RVs are likely to be zero. But here Leaf and Gasrec have plans.

He said: “We are hoping that sales of bio-methane vans will grow and when they do, we’ll be installing more and more bunkers.

“Eventually we are hoping to join up the dots and offer an infrastructure of our own.

"Then, who knows – far from gas-powered vans having no residual value, they might even command a premium over diesel models in three to five years’ time.”