As a Northern firm offers cheaper fuel for recycled fat, in the Republic moves towards biofuels are hindered by Government inaction. Hugh Oram and Michael McAleer report
With war in the Gulf looking imminent, and a resultant rise in oil prices likely, a Co Tyrone fuel company is offering cheaper fuel to motorists in return for a container of their used vegetable oil.
Special 20-litre containers will be given out to customers next week at the firm's filling station to collect used cooking oil that will be recycled into "biodiesel". A full container of fat collected from the frying pan or chip pan earns - under a special promotion - seven pence per litre off a fill-up at the pumps. Biodiesel can be used in any diesel-engined car.
O'Neill's Fuels, outside Coalisland, is believed to be the first company on the island of Ireland to produce and sell biodiesel on a commercial basis. It has been developing the product for the past two years.
Director Brian Quinn said that while the firm's main suppliers are schools and hotels, they were hoping the promotion would add to the 5,000 litres a week they now produce. O'Neill's competitors for the used fats are animal feed manufacturers.
However, Mr Quinn says the Irish Government's failure to offer tax reductions to biofuels means it is not cost-efficient to export his biodiesel to the Republic.
While we remain the most energy dependent country in Europe spending over €100 million a week on mostly imported fuel, biofuels are still far from commercially viable. Industry sources say that until there's an excise duty differential, any switch to biofuel use won't occur.
At the University of Limerick, where they've been using biodiesel in their on-campus vehicles, they've now had to revert to conventional fuels.
The university had been running EU- funded research programmes on the subject and enough biodiesel was being being brought in for experimental use to power the vehicles. Now, however, they claim it's so difficult to get biodiesel - it had to be imported - that they've gone back to conventional diesel.
The most advanced research programme into biofuels has been in two locations in Carlow. At the Teagasc Oak Park research centre, much work has been done on the potential of biofuels.
Bernard Rice, a Teagasc research officer and one of the most experienced people in this sector, explains that over the past few years, they have been doing research on how rape seed and similar seeds, as well as waste vegetable and cooking oil, can be converted into an additive for diesel.
Ethanol - used as a petrol enhancer - is produced from material such as cereals, root crops and woody biomass, with beet especially suitable. "The conversion processes are entirely practical and proven," says Rice, adding that what biofuel needs now to get it going is a fiscal stimulus from the Government. He points out that in Britain, the government lowered excise duty on biofuels by 20p a litre last summer, resulting in a huge increase in demand. In the Republic, there is still no price differential between biofuels and conventional fuels.
Another centre in Carlow heavily in biofuel development is the Institute of Technology. Dr Patricia Mulcahy, head of development, says: "We've been running an ethanol research programme since 1992." In a research programme involving Maxol, Ford and the University of California, she explains that the emphasis is on the actual production of ethanol, from such "raw" materials as grasses, straw and waste paper, as opposed to finding out how it works in cars.
Current programmes may be enhanced by the recent EU call for proposals from Sustainable Energy Ireland, as part of the EU's Sixth Framework Programme for Energy Research. The EU's target is to have the equivalent of 2 per cent of petrol and diesel sold transferred to biofuels by 2005 - and 5.75 per cent by 2010.
Since biofuel production in Ireland is still virtually non-existent, it's going to be very difficult for Ireland to make even that 2005 target. Bernard Rice of Teagasc adds: "There hasn't been large scale replacement of conventional fuels anywhere in the EU."
Ireland's biofuel research focus, which sources in the industry says lacks national co-ordination, has been on biodiesel and ethanol. This is partly because we don't have a tradition of car and truck engine manufacturing.
In the US, the focus is different; the US Government has just decided to pump $1.2 billion into researching and developing hydrogen as an alternative fuel. The most advanced country in the world in terms of using hydrogen, which is an energy carrier rather than a fuel, is Iceland. It plans to reduce oil imports to zero within 30 years.
Most major car makers are planning hydrogen vehicles, with Toyota determined to be the first to launch one for commercial use. It plans to have this type of vehicle on commercial sale in Tokyo this summer, with a price tag of $75,000. It has just unveiled its hydrogen-powered SUV in California.
Some oil companies, too, are planning for the day beyond oil, such as BP and Royal Dutch/Shell. Here in Ireland, much of the biofuel research has been done, but commercial production still isn't a practical reality.
Now, it's all down to the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, to come up with a few nicely timed excise duty cuts.