Household waste could power low carbon transport
January 8, 2010
Transport could be fuelled by domestic waste in the future according to a new report commissioned by the UK government and the Renewable Fuels Agency (RFA).
Analysts Ecometrica and the London university Imperial College co-authored the report on estimating the environmental impact of converting waste materials such as molasses, municipal solid waste, straw and tallow into biofuels.
Municipal solid waste emerged as the material that would produce the lowest quantity of greenhouse gas emissions if converted for fuel purposes.
A key finding was that replacing fossil diesel with MSW in transportation could actually result in a net carbon emissions saving of 193 percent.
The report was commissioned by the Department for Energy and Climate Change and the RFA in order to meet the challenges of the European Renewable Energy Directive set out in 2009.
RED stipulates that ten percent of fuels used in transportation across Europe should be renewable by 2020.
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