Liverpool shopping mall to trial biofuel refinery in the basement

A shopping mall in the centre of Liverpool is to trial an innovative scheme that would see used cooking oil from the centre's restaurants turned into biofuel onsite.

The Liverpool ONE retail, leisure and residential centre announced last week that it is to build a biofuel room in the mall's basement that will be used to convert waste oil into biodiesel within 24 hours. The fuel will then be used by the company that manages the centre to run the fleet of estate vehicles that are used to clean the site.

The company said that it expects to produce around 200 litres of biodiesel a week, potentially cutting carbon emissions by an estimated 54 tonnes a year.

Under the scheme, used cooking oil will be collected each day and fed into an onsite Fuelpod, which pumps the oil through a series of filters and heats it overnight to 65 degrees. The warmed oil will then be mixed with methanol and potassium hydroxide, which act together to bind the fats within the oil, creating biodiesel and a glycerine-laden oil that can be used to accelerate the development of compost.

A growing number of firms, including fast food giant McDonalds, are now using old cooking oil to create biodiesel, but Liverpool ONE said the use of onsite refinery equipment would serve to cut the carbon footprint of the process still further by removing the need for the oil to be transported.

"As a vital part of Liverpool's economy, we feel that Liverpool ONE should play a role preserving the environment," said estate director Chris Bliss. "The Biofuels Initiative will help lower the carbon footprint of Liverpool ONE and individual retailers. It also forms another element of Liverpool ONE’s overall environmental strategy."