Dugdale lifts its eco performance with bio fuel move
West Yorkshire based Dugdale Ltd is adding new strings to it’s environmental-based manufacturing by investing in Bio LPG technology. The principal practical outcome is using the new fuel in order to power the company’s fleet of forklift trucks at the Sowerby Bridge headquarters.
Bio LPG is a comparatively new environmental fuel; a by-product of bio diesel manufacturing which, instead of being discarded is made into a fuel.
Neste Oil in Rotterdam began manufacture of the new material in September 2015 and Dugdale is among the UK’s first users of the product, which becomes commercially available from next month, March 2017. The new fuel claims a substantial reduction in Greenhouse Gas (GHG) effects over ordinary Liquid Propane Gas (LPG).
Eddie Kalinowski is heading up the introduction of the new forklift truck fuel. He says that ‘the chemical composition of BioLPG is identical to conventional LPG. However, the carbon footprint of the product – made from a range of feedstocks – is much superior. In testing and handling with our forklift trucks we have noticed no difference. It therefore makes complete sense for Dugdale to use this renewable biofuel and thus increase our energy savings under the Renewal Energy Directive (RED).
Dugdale Managing Director David Outen says that ‘an increasing amount of our work at Dugdale is embedded in service to the environment, whether creating new material compounds from first-life PVC products or assisting in closed loop collection and re-manufacturing schemes. Sourcing Bio LPG gives us another opportunity to further reduce the company’s environmental footprint at no loss in efficiency. We are pleased to support this new bio fuel initiative.’
This year sees Dugdale cap out a round of investment that will take its capital spend to over £3 million. Outen and his co-directors have grown the Dugdale brand and PVC compound sales through the last three years; buying the business in 2014 and investing steadily in it since.
The new Dugdale investments include laboratory facilities with a mini-compounding line; the installation of a new silo, securing new warehousing, and the installation of additional mixing and compounding equipment.
The Dugdale team is looking forward once more to its Gold Sponsorship of the triennial PVC 2017 event in Brighton, April 25-27.
