United Biscuits expands use of UCO biodiesel in delivery fleet

United Biscuits (UB), the one of the leading international manufacturers of biscuits, cakes, and snacks, has extended its initiative that leverages used cooking oil (UCO) to power its delivery vehicles.

The UK-based manufacturer of Jaffa Cakes now has a total of 16 vehicles running on Ultra Biofuel brand biodiesel, which generates carbon savings of up to 97% compared to traditional diesel.

UB’s 44-tonne vehicles have been converted and operate on a dual-fuel system with Ultra Biofuel comprising 85% of the total fuel consumed.

Rob Wright, UB’s head of distribution, is pleased the company’s biofuel project has demonstrated the potential of power from waste.

‘The benefits of recycling UCO from our food factories is another step along UB’s green journey, which has already seen us make significant gains in reducing carbon emissions across our logistics business,’ Wright says.

The use of the biodiesel generates an overall CO₂ saving of 82.5%, which is the CO₂ equivalent to removing 1.5 million truck miles from the road per year.

UB converted an additional six Euro VI vehicles to run on biodiesel as a result of the biofuel project’s success following its initial launch in 2012, when the company formed a consortium with Convert2Green and the University of Leeds Energy Institute and participated in the Department for Transport’s Low Carbon Truck Trial.

The University of Leeds carried out extensive testing and analysis in real world conditions during the trial and published three papers containing the results.

In addition to proving the CO₂ benefits, there was also a significant reduction in particulate emissions with no deterioration in engine performance or fuel consumption.

The move to Ultra Biofuel is part of a series of commitments from UB to reduce carbon emissions across its logistic operations, which have already seen a total decrease of 43% in CO₂ since 2005.

This includes the introduction of 62 trailers that are two metres longer than regular ones to UB’s delivery fleet, operating under an extended Department for Transport trial.

These trailers carry 15% more pallets and help to reduce road miles by 450,000 per annum.

‘We firmly believe that this approach and technology is scalable and we hope to set a precedent that other organisations will follow,’ says Wright.

In September, the UB partnership won the ‘Low Carbon Fuel Initiative of the Year’ at the Low Carbon Vehicle Champions Awards and earlier this month these and other initiatives were also recognised in UB being awarded the ‘Freight Operator of the Year’ at the UK National Transport Awards.

Both projects form part of the company’s multi-award winning ‘Fewer and Friendlier Miles’ campaign, which has removed a total of 30 million truck miles from UK roads since launching in 2005.