Reg Bio-Power

In 2007 REG formed REG Bio-Power to generate clean energy from recovered used cooking oil (UCO).

The company has established a countrywide network of collection tanks installed at more than 375 local authority recycling centres as well as schools and prisons.

Investment in a £1m processing plant at Hockwold in Norfolk enables REG Bio-Power to potentially recover up to 20 million litres of waste oil into our patented bioliquid LF100. We use an additive free filtration and sedimentation process to produce the unique LF100, which in 2009 was awarded End of Waste status by the Environment Agency, freeing us from stringent environmental permitting legislation.

LF100 is used to power renewable energy generating plant at sites around the UK.

In 2011, REG Bio-Power was awarded a contract to provide Short Term Operating Reserve (STOR) to the National Grid to meet unscheduled demand at short notice. The company will continue to increase the amount of oil collected from municipal sources and develop new sites to host generating plant.

How it Works

To recover UCO into our bioliquid LF100 we use natural gravitational settling and filtration in a six-stage, additive-free process. The end product reacts similarly to conventional fuel when highly compressed inside a diesel engine.

In 2010, the Department of Energy and Climate Change funded an in-depth study into the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) benefits of using of vegetable oils for electricity, heat, transport and industrial purposes. The findings showed that of these applications, the highest absolute savings in emissions is achieved using refined vegetable oil derived from used cooking oil to generate energy.

LF100 is used in modified diesel engines to operate our contract to provide 8MW of STOR power to the National Grid.