OIL cooked out of fish heads, entrails and skeletons is generating heat and electricity for fish processors on the Aleutian Island of Unalaska, napanews.com has reported.

Alaska companies are among the first in the world to use fish oil on a large scale as a cheaper, and more environmentally friendly substitute for diesel fuel.

At Unisea Inc., in Dutch Harbor, thousands of gallons of pollock fish oil are mixed each day with diesel and used to power the seaside plant's electrical generators and boilers. Replacing diesel with fish oil cuts costs, as well as harmful emissions such as sulfur and particulates, according to Unisea officials. In addition, the seafood company also saves on the expensive shipping rates it would otherwise have to pay to send the fish waste to buyers outside Alaska, such as aquaculture companies who use the oil as fish feed. The research and development manager for Unisea said that the orangish hue of pollock oil comes from the tiny krill the fish feast on in the Bering Sea. Blending the oil with diesel yields a pale yellowish liquid that leaves no fishy odours. The Unisea company and several fish processors in Alaska have used fish oil to run their boilers for years, but in 2001 Unisea, with the help of state funding, became the first to power its electrical generators with the renewable fuel.

www.fishupdate.com is published by Special Publications. Special Publications also publish European Fish Trader, Fishing Monthly, Fish Farming Today, Fish Farmer, the Fish Industry Yearbook, the Scottish Seafood Processors Federation Diary, the Fish Farmer Handbook and a range of wallplanners.

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