AN ICELANDIC entrepreneur has created a new “biofuel” using whale oil — which he then uses to power his whale-hunting ships.

Kristjan Loftsson, who runs a business catching fin whales around Iceland, claims his biofuel, a mixture of 20% whale oil and 80% diesel, is the world’s greenest.

Loftsson says the oil is doubly environmentally friendly because he uses geothermal energy from Iceland’s volcanic vents to melt the whale carcasses to extract the oil.

However, a leading whale conservation group described the practice as “completely perverse and unethical”. Loftsson says each boat burns the equivalent of one whale a day during the hunting season, saving hundreds of thousands of pounds a year.

Fin whales are classed as “endangered” — at very high risk of extinction