Chocolate Biodiesel Powers Truck

Chocolate Biodiesel Powers Truck



November 2007 
 Biodiesel made from waste chocolate 
is fueling the journey of two British men who left the town of Poole, on 
England's southern coast Friday headed for Timbuktu, Mali in West Africa. 
They are using the trip to raise public awareness about biofuels and their 
potential to ease the impact of climate change. 
Andy Pag of London and John Grimshaw of Poole have nicknamed their big 
Ford Iveco Cargo truck the BioTruck. It will carry their chocolate 
biodisel fuel and two smaller vehicles for crossing the Sahara Desert. 
Propelled by the unique biodisel, they expect to take about three weeks to 
drive the 4,500 miles to Timbuktu from London, planning to make it to 
Timbuktu on December 16. 
They aim to encourage UK motorists to fill up on biofuels. “If we use 
biodiesel to get to Timbuktu with a standard engine, there's no reason why 
people in the UK can't use it for their commute or school run,” said Pag. 
The BioTruck team is attempting the first ever carbon negative driving 
expedition across the Sahara Desert. To reach this goal, they will use a 
mix of carbon cutting techniques, including biofuels and carbon 
offsetting. 

As an offset, they intend to deliver a small biodeisel processing unit to 
a Mali renewable energy charity that specializes in developing enterprise 
through environmental projects. 
The group receiving the biofuels processor is Mali-Folkecenter, MFC, which 
represents the Danish Folkecenter for Renewable Energy. 
MFC will assist local women to use the new Ecotec unit to convert their 
used cooking oil into biodiesel. It will supplement their housekeeping 
funds, provide employment for one or two technicians, and produce carbon 
neutral fuel for local vehicles. 
In addition, the project will serve as a partial carbon offset for the 
BioTruck expedition. 
"When measuring the carbon footprint of the expedition we will factor in 
the offsetting effect of the carbon saved by the fuel that is produced 
over the next 12 months following the expedition," say Pag and Grimshaw, 
who expect the project to save 15 metric tons of carbon emissions in the 
first year alone. http://www.biotruck.co.uk/ 
The outcome is being analyzed with independent assistance from 
CarbonAided, using industry standard methodologies to verify the carbon 
negative claim. 
CarbonAided says the manufacture and use of the sweet smelling chocolate 
biodiesel emits just a tenth of the carbon footprint of fossil diesel. 
Pag and Grimshaw will drive south across France and Spain and then take a 
ferry to Morocco. From there they will drive across the country to 
Mauritania and cross Africa through the Sahara Desert to Timbuktu. 

  To make it across the moving desert sands and rough roads of Mali, Pag and 
Grimshaw will drive two converted 4×4 Toyota Land Cruisers, which are 
carried in the BioTruck. 
The two adventurers are carrying 2,000 liters of biodiesel produced from 
4,000 kilos of chocolate mistakes made by a major confectionery company. 
The process of converting the misshapen chocolates into an eco-friendly, 
cheap fuel is the brainstorm of Ecotec Resources UK Ltd, a Lancashire firm 
based in the village of Bamber Bridge. 
Ecotec developed a proprietary process for converting waste chocolate from 
the nearby factory into bioethanol on an industrial scale. Previously this 
waste was thrown away in landfill sites but now the bioethanol it makes 
can be used for fuel in petrol-burning cars and in the production of 
biodiesel. 
The final cost of the chocolate-derived biodiesel is 15 pence a liter, or 
about US$1.16 a gallon. 
In addition to its new chocolate biodiesel product, Ecotec manufactures 
biodiesel processors and reactors for the domestic and commercial markets, 
provides biodiesel training, maintenance and technical support, and 
supplies bulk quantities of biodiesel to the commercial market and to 
large and small fleet operators.
"Biodiesel is a perfectly suitable replacement for fossil diesel, in fact 
it has better lubrication qualities than fossil diesel and recent tests by 
Porsche on behalf of Mercedes proclaimed that the qualities of biodiesel 
could extend an engine's life considerably," the company says. 
Pag says he hopes the trip to Timbuktu, a city already feeling the effects 
of climate change, will make more people realize that ordinary diesel cars 
can run on biodiesel easily and cheaply, without any adaptations and 
thereby help to reduce global warming. 

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