SALES of an environmentally-friendly fuel produced on Teesside are really taking off.

"Bioplus" biodiesel, a 95:5 blend of ultra-low-sulphur diesel (ULSD) with oil from seed-based sources, is produced by Petroplus at its Port Clarence refinery. It began production only two years ago but has already captured 60pc of the biodiesel market.

Users include Northern Foods and Stiller, plus Bradford, Kirklees, Newcastle, Gateshead and Middlesbrough councils. Transport company Go Ahead North-East has made the switch in the past year and Royal Mail is carrying out trials.

Stiller's contract manager, David Atkinson, said the firm had conducted a 12-month Bioplus trial on its fleet of trunking vehicles. "We have been pleased with the Bioplus performance and have extended its use to other areas of the group fleet," he said.

Ian Waller, Petroplus business development manager, said sales had proved every bit as robust as they had hoped. "Commercial operators are reporting that their vehicles' engines run just as well and, in some cases, better in terms of miles per gallon," he said.

The Dutch-owned company has now decided to re-brand part of its fleet of Bioplus road tankers to a new, more appropriate, green livery.

"Red is our corporate colour and our red tankers with the P+ logo have become a familiar sight up and down the country," said Mr Waller. "As Bioplus is proving so popular we thought it would be timely to change some of the tankers carrying it to green."

Now, Petroplus and North-East Biofuels have applied for EU funding to support a 4m-euro project for further research and development of Biodiesel fuel production, distribution and use, with a view to persuading manufacturers to sanction greater blends than the present 5pc, and to encourage more efficient rapeseed harvesting.

Petroplus's 100 vehicles cover 11m miles a year. About 15pc carry Bioplus, with others carrying a wide range of other fuels including fuel oil, kerosene and ULSD.

North-East Biofuels is a consortium, headed by One NorthEast and private sector companies Petroplus, SembCorp Utilities UK, Simon Storage, Agrovista, Terra, Farmway, East Durham Biofuels, Vopak, K Holme International, Haltermann Custom Processing, Monsanto, ReNew and Teesside Chemical Initiative. It is looking at the increased opportunities for the region arising out of the decision by Biofuels Corporation to invest £21m in a new biodiesel unit at North Tees.