Aug 27, 2008 9:47 AM

Sainsbury’s supermarket in the United Kingdom has begun food deliveries to its flagship green store using a truck whose engine has been converted to run on liquid biomethane fuel produced from normal landfill waste.

Biomethane, a renewable fuel, is most commonly produced from organic wastes using biogas. A mixture of methane and other gases produced from the decomposition of organic materials, biogas is captured, processed, and compressed into a vehicle fuel.

The tractor and trailer makes a daily 310-mile round trip from the Sainsbury’s depot in Bristol to the store in Dartmouth, Devon. Built with consideration for the use of energy, water, waste, timber, and land, the store has been designed to reduce the amount of overall carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by some 40%.