Biofuels International: Building a biorefinery in the Middle East
This was originally published in Biofuels International
About Neutral Fuels
After almost a decade making biofuels in the fossil fuel capital of the world, with no subsidies, no carbon credits, no tax incentives but simple, respectful support from our government, we have reached a stark conclusion - the only sustainable way to make biofuel is to make it from waste.
Our backyard is literally a desert - we have no farmers’ fields of canola or soy, and the rainforests of Malaysia and Indonesia are a long way away. This local environment with no rain, no rivers, and no green fields, focusses the mind - any sort of feedstock from a farmer’s field probably deprives someone, somewhere of food.
Neutral Fuels was the first licensed biorefinery in the United Arab Emirates. We use European processing technology to convert waste vegetable oils into EN14214 compliant biodiesel to power transportation fleets. We are one of very few locally available sustainable alternatives, and our fuel has been adopted by heavy vehicles, school buses, trucks and construction equipment. Thus far, we are proud to say our direct actions have mitigated 10.5 million tonnes of CO2e emissions from well known corporations.
We are obsessively tech focussed to boost efficiency. We use IoT sensors to track our waste supplies, and an iPhone APP to track fuel supplies. Our novel oil collection system uses a 100% recyclable oil container, with a cloud-based data portal to track and trace every drop of waste oil, ensuring a complete audit trail. This is then used to provide each restaurant with valuable quantity and chemical quality data to optimise their operations. Without sacrificing anything on price, our customers still save on operating costs.
Neutral Fuels achieved profitability in 2012 and since then, monthly sales volumes have grown more than 10-fold (a 1000% increase). We plan to IPO in 2023 and have excellent sources of growth capital to allow us to achieve this. This year we will become a federated business creating small local refineries. There are 50 cities within four hours flying time of Dubai that justify small scale biorefineries producing EN compliant fuel from waste, helping to fulfil their governments’ desire to reduce dependency on fossil fuels.
Neutral Fuels’ vision is to be the leading regional provider of biofuels made from local waste, manufactured locally into fuels used locally. A recognised thought leader and trend setter in the local region, Dubai’s government announced in 2015 the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy which will produce 75% of Dubai’s energy requirements from clean sources by 2050. With 20% of the UAE’s carbon footprint coming from transportation, Neutral Fuels is proud to be contributing towards Dubai’s, and our children’s, sustainable future.
Biofuel industry
According to the Carbon Majors Report, just 100% companies have been the source of 71% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions since 1988. As governments around the world increase pressure to adopt lower carbon fuels, biofuel is simply the quickest and easiest way to reduce transportation carbon footprint
About Karl Feilder
Founder, CEO and Chairman of The Neutral Group and Neutral Fuels, Karl Feilder is a serial tech entrepreneur, sustainability advocate and international speaker. His direct actions to mitigate climate change have resulted in over 11 million tonnes of CO2e savings from global corporations. More recently, Karl has created and is implementing a highly innovative strategy to turn human waste into reusable energy. Karl has previously built five companies to exit via trade sale, and taken two more to their Initial Public Offering (IPO). A British national, Karl is now preparing its Neutral Fuels LLC subsidiary, a company that produces bio-fuel from used cooking oil, for an IPO on the London AIM stock market in 2023. Karl is the host of Middle East podcast and video series, Not Another Empty Suit.
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