GREEN fuels company D1 Oils has successfully produced its first batch of biodiesel using oil from a South American weed known as jatropha.

Teesside-based D1 processed the 20 tonnes of biodiesel using crude jatropha oil, grown in China, at its D1 20 test refinery site in Nateby, Lancashire.

D1 is growing jatropha in plantations across Asia and Africa, some of which will be shipped over to the North-East to produce biodiesel.

Communications director Graham Prince said: "What we are doing now is planting jatropha in large quantities around the globe, particularly in India, and it will be ready to harvest in three to five years.

"At that time, some will be sold locally and some will be imported to England to make biodiesel if the prices are right."

Unlike rapeseed, soy and palm oil, jatropha is a non-food oil and doesn't require arable land to grow.

Jatropha seeds produce a high yield of vegetable oil that can be refined into biodiesel.

Elliott Mannis, D1's chief executive, said: "This is the first time that jatropha biodiesel has been produced in the UK and is proof of D1's chemical engineering skills.

"Following our successful refining trials of rapeseed, soy and palm, the production of jatropha biodiesel proves that our proprietary refining and preprocessing technology is capable of dealing with a range of potential food and non-food grade feedstocks.

"We have now demonstrated that jatropha has the potential, when it becomes available in volume from our overseas planting operations, to be an alternative biodiesel feedstock for the UK and European markets."

D1 intends to relocate its test refinery site from Lancashire to its new headquarters on Middlesbrough's Riverside Park in the near future.