Peats Soil to fuel new Scania fleet with its own biodiesel

Willunga, South Australia-based Peats Soil has developed its own biodiesel manufacturing plant, utilising 'dirty water' it collects from food manufacturing locations.

The biodiesel will be used to fuel a new fleet of 13 Scania trucks it is purchasing for its collection and delivery operations around the state.

Peats Soil MD Peter Wadewitz says he aims to manufacture more than 1 million litres of biodiesel in the first year at his McLaren Vale headquarters, an hour south of Adelaide, which would provide the bulk of the 1.3 million litres his fleet of trucks and loaders will consume annually.

'The first batch of 1,000 litres is now in production,' Wadewitz says. 'We collect residual wash-down water from food preparation and manufacturing locations. We call it "dirty water". From this we extract the fats we use as the base stock of the biodiesel.

'This biodiesel manufacturing concept has been developed in association with Adelaide University and has attracted funding from the Australian Research Council,' Wadewitz continues. We have now progressed from proving the concept in a laboratory to building a new biodiesel manufacturing facility at our headquarters in Willunga. As far as we know there is only one other plant like this in the world – the US.

'We have ordered 13 new trucks from Scania that will run on 100% biodiesel. These trucks will replace our existing Scania fleet, plus we are adding two more trucks and two more loaders. This means we will be creating four new jobs for drivers plus adding staff for the laboratory.'

Alfons Reitsma, regional executive manager for Scania in South Australia, adds: 'We will be supplying Peats Soil with 480 hp six-cylinder trucks and some V8-powered 560 hp prime movers which will be used to collect waste matter and then deliver bulk and bagged organic supplies once they have been processed at the plant.

'Scania already produces some of the most fuel-efficient heavy trucks available in Australia, but the switch to biodiesel will make this one of the lowest CO2 emitting fleets in Australia. Our research shows biodiesel produces 80% less CO2 than regular diesel, making it exceptionally environmentally friendly.'