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Fuel for The Big Lemon buses
Our buses run on 100% recycled cooking oil.
The waste oil is collected from chip shops, restaurants and hotels in Brighton & Hove and across Sussex. It is then processed in a factory near Eastbourne to make biodiesel, a plant-based alternative to regular mineral diesel, and delivered to us.
Unlike burning fossil fuels like mineral diesel - which releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere which had been buried for millions of years - burning plant material only releases the carbon dioxide that the plant had absorbed in the last few years as it grew, not any new emissions in our lifetime. Plant material is also a renewable resource, and used cooking oil would otherwise be sent to our already overstretched landfill sites (which in turn emit another greenhouse gas - methane).
Throughout the supply chain, the environmental impact is minimised. The van that collects the waste oil is powered by the biodiesel, and the factory that produces the biodiesel is powered by a generator that runs on the biodiesel too. There is no water used in the process apart from in the tea that the workers drink.
The benefits of biodiesel from recycled cooking oil include:
- Approx 75% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions compared with mineral diesel*
- Virtually no sulphur dioxide (a major contributor to acid rain)*
- Lower emissions of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons and particulates*
- Approx 25% reduction in nitrogen oxides if engine timing is ‘retarded’*
- 79% less waste water and 96% less hazardous solid waste*
- Diverts a waste product from landfill
- Biodegrades four times quicker than mineral diesel*
- No wars or Arctic oil drilling required
* Source: “How to make biodiesel”, Low Impact Living Initiative, Winslow 2005
The Big Lemon CIC is a Community Interest Company registered in England and Wales no. 06045786
Registered Office and Operating Centre: Protran House, Boundary Road, Black Rock, Brighton BN2 5TJ
Tel. 01273 681 681 : Fax. 01273 681 681: E. lemonbus@thebiglemon.com