Americans are often criticised for guzzling too much gas and eating too much fat, but one of the biggest meat producers in the United States is turning the tables, with plans to make fuel for lorries out of left-over lard.

Tyson foods, one of the biggest producers of pork, beef and chicken in America, has teamed up with ConocoPhillips, the oil company, to make diesel fuel out of rendered animal fats.

The plan is the latest move by big business in America to find an alternative to Middle Eastern oil to fuel the country’s massive appetite for petrol and diesel.

Tyson said yesterday that it would send rendered chicken, pork and beef fat from one of its Texas meat-processing plants to be turned into fuel at a ConocoPhillips refinery near by. “This fuel will contribute to America’s energy security and help to address climate change concerns,” the companies said in a joint statement last night.

The lard-based diesel will be made in only one refinery for the time being, but with improvements to other facilities Conoco and Tyson hope to be able to produce about 175 million gallons a year.

However, even this seemingly large volume of diesel derived from animal fat will make only a tiny dent in America’s annual petrol requirements. The nation’s drivers consume more than 873 million gallons of fuel a day.

In all, Americans consume more than 20 million barrels of oil per day, with almost half of that accounted for by petrol and diesel used in cars and lorries.

The United States, the biggest consumer of oil in the world, produces only slightly more than five million barrels of oil per day and imports a net total of more than 12.5 million barrels per day of petroleum products, mostly from Saudi Arabia, according to the latest data from the US Department of the Environment.

Tyson produces about 300 million gallons of beef, pork and chicken fat each year and the company hopes that a little more than half of it will be made into diesel. The meat company sells its fat to cosmetics, soap and pet food manufacturers.

Producing one 42-gallon barrel of renewable diesel requires about one barrel of animal fat, which is derived, on average from two cows, sixteen pigs or 1,300 chickens. Until now alternative fuel production has focused on ethanol derived from plants.

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