The UK has helped launch what is possibly the world's first sustainable biofuel company.

Joint venture

India's ClearStarEnergy and the UK's Regenatec, based in Oxford have set up a joint venture – RegenaStar – to develop highly cost-competitive biodiesel fuel from non-food oils.

The new company was helped on its way by UK Trade and Investment (UKTI), the joint department run by the FCO and the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform. UKTI has a lead role within government for developing trade overseas and inward investment in the UK.

Local partner

A UK company hoping to break into the Indian market needs a local partner. So with UKTI's help, Mike Lawton, founder and chief executive of Regenatac, established a link with India's CleanStar, a company that specialises in ethically-produced agro-fuels and has intimate knowledge of the Indian market, and which provided a perfect fit with Regenatec's plant-oil fuel technology.

The oil for the fuel comes mainly from trees grown on marginal land in India in an ethical and sustainable way. This means it avoids the food versus fuel conflict currently raging, and also differentiates it from companies which make their fuel from palm and other plant oils.

Fair trade fuel company

The intention, Mike Lawton, "is for RegenaStar to become the world's first genuine fair trade fuel company, based on social and ethical standards".

The fuel is jatropha and pongamia oil, grown in a semi-arid tropical part of Maharashtra in western India by CleanStar. And for Lawton, the way it’s grown is as important as the source. "Our demonstration plantation is a model for how growing biofuels can enrich communities and the landscape."

Barren scrubland

The first point he stresses is that the oil-rich jatropha and pongamia trees can grow on barren scrubland unsuited to food crops. Planting them does not involve deforestation, nor does it create a dense monoculture at the expense of rough grazing. "The media debate misses the fact that there are many ways to grow biofuel," says Lawton.

And "CleanStar selects the most sustainable approach for the type of land available." As the trees grow, their leaves provide shade and ultimately organic matter for the ground, conserving moisture and gradually regenerating topsoil.

Support from locals

Gaining community support is very important. Planting and maintaining trees creates employment for the local population, and CleanStar’s biofuel programme has been supported by 55 local village councils so far, says Lawton. "They have been to see our demonstration site and say this is what they want to replicate in their villages, because it makes sense ethically and economically."

Conversion systems

Regenatec designs, manufactures and sells conversion systems which let commercial diesel engines operate on ethically sourced, low-carbon, pure plant oil (PPO).

The company modifies the diesel engine itself, not the fuel. As no chemical process is required to produce a new fuel, PPO costs less to produce than biodiesel or mineral diesel fuels.

Bracknell buses

It has recently signed a contract to fit conversions by bus builder Optare in ten buses operated by Bracknell-based Courtney Coaches.  The rest of the company's 34 strong fleet will be fitted within the next year.

Regenatec is also behind the UK's first plant-oil powered school bus.  Have a look at the video on YouTube which shows how it all works.

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