Gecco, a northern company manufactures 100% biodiesel with used edible oils.
Prohibited to the general public, this fuel can be used by captive fleets of community vehicles.
This is what the community of municipalities of Béthune-Bruay is experiencing with some of its garbage trucks.
In Hauts-de-France, we have no oil but we have shacks for fries. We may not know it and it is not obvious either, but in the region, many diesel vehicles have already been circulating for a few years using frying oil. Until then, this fuel still mainly contained normal diesel up to 70%. The northern company Gecco now offers biodiesel made from 100% recycled vegetable or animal oils. Called “B100”, this fuel is tested in garbage trucks in the community of communes of Béthune-Bruay, in Pas-de-Calais.
To collect household waste from the 280,000 inhabitants of the community of communes of Béthune-Bruay, the community's 75 garbage trucks travel nearly two million kilometers per year and consume no less than one million liters of diesel.
An unavoidable ecological and economic chasm?
“We wanted a solution to massively and quickly reduce our carbon footprint.
The biodiesel solution emerged because it did not require investment and because we have an abundant local resource: frying oil ”, explains Pierre Emmanuel Gibson, the elected official in charge of waste collection and recovery.
A fuel prohibited for sale to the general public
Since 2019, this community has already been testing biodiesel in its B30 version, composed of 30% recycled oil. A positive experience according to the elected: “This does not require any modification of the vehicles and does not require any particular maintenance. The performance of the trucks is exactly the same as with normal diesel, ”he says. A solid two-year experience feedback that contradicts the government's arguments to prohibit the use of B30 and B100 to the general public: "they are not compatible with the engines of many diesel vehicles already in circulation" and require " appropriate maintenance conditions ”.
The windfall is important and is not likely to run dry. Alone, the social integration company Gecco, based near Lille, collects more than 20 tonnes of used cooking oils every week on the Hauts-de-France perimeter from professionals and individuals. Thanks to their brand new processing unit, Gecco can produce just over one million liters of B100. "The combustion of this fuel releases 93% of greenhouse gases and 60% of fine particles less than diesel", assures Rose Mergy, project manager at Gecco.
At 1.30 euros per liter, the operation is not (yet) economically profitable for Gecco customers.
“The real benefit is for the planet.
But with the scarcity of oil resources and the increase in fuel prices, the balance could quickly change sides, ”said Pierre Emmanuel Gibson.
For his community, he also hopes to extend the use of the B100 to the fleet of 75 garbage trucks, and even to other services.
Impossible in the short term.
"Our production capacity is still limited and we must also supply other communities such as the city of Lille", recognizes Rose Mergy.
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