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Choc-waste goes eco-friendly
07/11/2007 12:03 - (SA)
London - Chocoholics can assuage any
guilt they may feel after a new process was developed that turns
the by-products of making chocolate into a biofuel - meaning
you can eat your chocolate and be eco-friendly.
A truck, fuelled by the biofuel, will set out from Poole on
the English south coast to Mali in West Africa later this month
on a charity mission.
"The chocolate waste used to be used in landfill. But now we
can make it travel as biofuel," said organiser Andy Pag who will
be one of the two drivers on the trip.
North western English firm Ecotec has taken waste from the
chocolate manufacturing process, turned it into bio-ethanol and
mixed it with vegetable oil to produce biodiesel.
Some biofuels have come under fire for either diverting
much-needed food crops or leading to massive deforestation as
land is cleared to grow crops specially for biofuel production.
"This is to show that you can have environmentally-friendly
biofuels and that you don't have to convert normal diesel
engines to use it," Pag told Reuters.
The BioTruck will depart on Nov. 26 and is expected to take
about three weeks to drive the 4,500 miles to Timbuktu where it
will off-load a small biofuel production unit with the local MFC
charity.
But vehicles using the novel product will not exude the
sweet smell of success. "No! I'm afraid the exhaust doesn't
smell of chocolate," said Pag.
- Reuters
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