Producing biodiesel from waste prison cooking oil

Ministry of Justice procurement is working with foodservice company to collect waste vegetable cooking oil from prisons and covert it to renewable fuel biodiesel. The prison estate annually uses more than 500,000 litres of cooking oil in the preparation of meals for more than 75,000 prisoners.

The programme, run in conjunction with company 3663, is being trialled at seven sites and, if successful, will roll out across 128 prisons. The biofuel programme meets MoJ requirements for the traceable and safe disposal of used cooking oil but has the further benefit of creating a virtuous circle of recycling.

Matthew McCabe, who leads the project for NOMS, said,

The Ministry is committed to reducing its impact on the environment by continuously improving the environmental performance of its operations and estate.

As part of the programme, 3663 – named one of the Sunday Times Best Green Companies in 2008 – delivers virgin cooking oil to HMPS establishments. Once used, the waste vegetable oil is collected by national oil collection company Arrow Oils before it is sent to bio-energy company Convert2Green for recycling and conversion into biodiesel. The biodiesel is then returned to the 3663 depots which use it to fuel their truck, which are then loaded with supplies for delivery to HMPS, completing the circle.