One of the big advantages of this fuel is that it burns very cleanly and quietly when compared to regular diesel A UK-based company that converts organic waste into lorry fuel is looking to Ireland for its newest source of raw materials

RICHARD LILLEYSTONE has his eye on Guinness and Bulmers, but it's not their booze that he's after. He wants their rubbish.

Guinness, Bulmers and their ilk produce huge amounts of organic rubbish, which is very expensive to dispose of. Lilleystone proposes using this rubbish to produce a liquid fuel that could be used to power heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) including the famous Guinness trucks.

He says Ireland has other potentially rich sources of organic material.

"Sugar beet and the residue left once the sugar has been extracted make wonderful materials for decomposition because they are so high in calories," Lilleystone says.

The sugar industry, which kept many an Irish farmer going for more than 80 years, came to a grinding halt in 2006. "I think there is definitely an opportunity here to revisit this kind of production," he says.

Lilleystone is chief executive officer of Gasrec, a UK-based company that is the largest producer of liquid biomethane (LBM) fuel in the world. The company currently wants to expand and is looking to its nearest neighbour, Ireland, for possible sources of raw materials.

"We have opportunities in mainland Europe, the US and even China. We do want to go elsewhere, but the closer it is, the better we like it," Lilleystone says.

The company is actively seeking to form strategic partnerships and Lilleystone says they are willing to work with anyone with a lot of rubbish to get rid of.

"Food companies, farmyards, restaurants, councils, anyone . . . we'll take it off their hands," he says.

Gasrec uses the waste gases produced as a result of organic decomposition to produce a transport fuel. The waste gases produced are a mixture of methane, carbon dioxide, nitrogen and other gases. The methane is separated out and liquefied at minus 161 degrees to produce the fuel.

"One of the big advantages of the fuel is that it burns very cleanly and quietly compared to regular diesel," says Lilleystone.

Carbon dioxide emissions are reduced by 70 per cent, soot is reduced by 90 per cent and nitrous oxide and sulphur dioxide are reduced by 45-50 per cent, he claims.

There is also a 50 per cent reduction in noise, which would make this fuel perfect for a grid-locked city like Dublin.

"It's ideal for the urban environment, where there is lots of stopping and starting. It could make night deliveries, which are banned in some places, possible because of the reduced noise," he says.

Big companies produce a lot of rubbish and are an obvious target, but Gasrec is also looking to connect with local authorities to gain access to household rubbish.

"About a third of this rubbish is organic. We could work with local authorities to isolate and process it. Basically we would act as receivers, taking a fee that would be less than what is currently spent on disposing of it. There would be no losers and if anything, everyone would be slightly better off. The fuel produced could then be used in the trucks collecting the rubbish. It would be a step towards carbon neutrality that wouldn't cost anybody anything."

It seems that Lilleystone couldn't have picked a better time to makes moves into Ireland. According to Department of the Environment spokesman, John Whelan, "A major review of waste policy is now commencing". They plan to examine how they can recover organic matter from domestic waste and reduce the amount going to landfill, he adds.

No less than 74 per cent of domestic waste in Ireland is biodegradable and 820,000 tonnes of that is biomass.

"This is only a fraction of the biomass arising," says Lilleystone, "but I estimate that even with this, we could produce 5 million kilograms of LBM, which would allow 130 HGVs to travel 110,000 miles at eight miles per gallon." This represents carbon savings of 15,000 tonnes per annum.

In Surrey, Gasrec recently launched the first commercial plant in Europe to produce LBM from a landfill site. Although landfill sites are already used to produce electricity, this is the first time that the waste gases have been used to make a transport fuel. Other sources of the gases are farmyard manure, municipal sewage and food waste, which Ireland has aplenty.

The fact that biomethane is produced from these waste materials also means that, unlike other biofuels, there is no need to use crops that would otherwise be used as foodstuffs. It also allows energy-poor nations like Ireland to take some control of their energy supply, which is becoming particularly important as energy prices go up and energy security becomes an issue.