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A Preston, Lancashire-based biodiesel specialist is turning the chocolate rejected by UK manufacturers into truck fuel. Ecotec is testing its fuel by using it to run a truck driving from London to Timbuktu, in Mali, but has already started selling the biodiesel from a pump at its fuel plant. The company says one of the advantages of making fuel from chocolate that has been discarded because it is chipped or damaged is that it is an effective form of recycling, unlike using crops grown specifically  for fuel.

It is also cheaper than ordinary diesel. Ecotec sells it from the pump for 90p/lit but can sell hauliers equipment to make the diesel at a total cost of around 40p/lit. Sales and marketing manager Andrew Hodgson says equipment to produce 1,000 litres per day costs £10,000-£11,000 to buy. The difficulty for hauliers is that truck manufacturers attach strict regulations to the use of biofuel and will not honour warranties if these regulations are broken.

Typically, the manufacturers insist on a blend with conventional diesel, sometimes with only 5% biodiesel permitted. There is considerable technical debate over whether biodiesel will damage truck engines. Hodgson says that if biodiesel is made properly, trucks with unmodified diesel engines can run perfectly well using it on its own. Eventually Ecotec hopes hauliers will set up their own small production facilities to cut fuel costs by more than half.