The Biodiesel Project

A number of Go-Ahead London buses are the first since Stagecoach: East London's Barking (BK) buses to sport new Cleaner Air for London stickers.

Hybrid buses have proven themselves a successful and fundamental part of the eco-friendly and sustainability  schemes Transport for London have been promoting for almost a decade now, being the answer to reducing the London bus network's involvement in carbon emission.

Hydrogen and, very recently, electric buses have become a gradually growing part of this scheme: ten zero emission hydrogen buses run on Tower Transit route RV1 with currently only two electric buses for former Red Arrow routes 507 and 521 as opposed to over five hundred hybrid buses.  However, a new introduction has already outshone hydrogen and electric power  and could succeed the once acclaimed diesel power wholly.


All bus routes from Barking got a healthy taste of food waste.
©EastLondoner updated us throughout the fuel's application.

It was announced by Boris Johnson in November that a few buses would be trialling a biofuel extracted from cooking oil and food waste (newspapers headlined the food waste to be 'chip fat') and if successful more than 100 London buses currently running on diesel would convert to this efficient new fuel.

The scheme was trialled from Barking (BK), a Stagecoach London bus garage part of their East London division covering all their routes: the 5, 15 (early and late service), 62, 101, 145, 169, 366, 387, 396, school route 687 and night route N15 consisting of Alexander ALX400 bodied Dennis Trident 2, Alexander Dennis Enviro200, Alexander Dennis Enviro400 and Optare Versa buses got a healthy taste of food waste. An installation of a 50,000 litre storage tank at Barking Bus Garage enabled the biofuel to be mixed onsite, reducing costs thus being a certain benefit for the garage considering the 3.7 million litres of fuel they emit every year.

London has the highest concentration of food businesses in the country and if this could be processed into biodiesel, not only could this project save 50,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide but could fuel a fifth of London's bus fleet. The biofuel also produces 15 per cent less carbon emissions than your average diesel powered bus and no mechanical change is required to add this new feature to buses.

Therefore, it came as no surprise that a few weeks ago the biodiesel project became a success and expanded to Go-Ahead London, where Camberwell (Q) and Mandela Way (MW) now sport new stickers promoting the adaptation of an ample number of their vehicles to reduce emissions. While it seems every Wright-bodied Volvo (WVL) bus from Camberwell (Q) have converted to biodiesel in quick succession, Mandela Way (MW) have still a few Alexander Dennis Enviro400 (E) buses to adapt although most have already completed the process, too.

Eco friendly transportation has taken a liking to hybrid power,
but is biodiesel going to give the hybrids a run for their money?