Alumnus Dr Alan Crofts, a biochemistry undergraduate at Bangor, went onto seek adventure after leaving the University in 1990.
Having an interest in desert lands from an early age, Alan organised his first independent expedition in 1995 and crossed the Western Sahara desert from North to South (via Mauritania and Western Sahara. Since then and taking advantage of skills learnt as an Intelligence Officer in the Royal Air Force, he has organised and embarked on numerous independent pathfinding expeditions across the world as well as taking part in a desert survival programme in Jordan run by the Royal Marines. He has been sponsored by industry to path find routes and water sources throughout the Eastern Sahara and the Central Asian Kyzl Kum. Alan is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and has presented at the desert workshop at the Society’s annual Explore congress on a number of occasions.
In 2025 he led the “Into Clean Air” Expedition to the Atacama Desert and High Arid Passes of Chile and Bolivia
This groundbreaking expedition was organized to evaluate the premise that remote expeditions over the severest terrain and environmental conditions can be carried out using sustainable and carbon saving fuel sources – primarily waste cooking oil - to power vehicles. Solar was used power the equipment. The information thus gained will be applied for application in urban mass transit and heavy industry operations such as mining in Chile and Bolivia.
The expedition left from Santiago, Chile in late April 2025 and traversed the high arid passes of the Andes at the borderlands of Chile and Bolivia before exploring the largest salt pan in the world, The Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia, and returning through the central Atacama Desert – the driest place on Earth.
The two unmodified expedition trucks (Ford Ranger pickups) were run using a biofuel/diesel mix of up to 20% to keep within manufacturer’s warranty stipulation. The waste cooking oil was collected from restaurants in Santiago and processed for use. In Bolivia a nationally available 20% biodiesel mixed was used. Initially, by running a control vehicle on 100% diesel we were able to qualitatively assess and compare the functioning and performance of both trucks at high altitude (up to 5000 m (16,400 ft) and through a temperature range of -15°C to +30°C. In addition, the trucks were assessed over extreme off-road conditions where low-range gearing and high revs were necessarily employed to traverse deep sand/ash and steep inclines.
There was no discernible difference in engine performance between the control and active vehicles in all the environmental parameters listed above. See report in Geographic magazine: Geographical Magazine: How can we make expeditions more planet-friendly?
Alan very much valued his time at Bangor and in particularly the biochemistry department and went on to gain a PhD York before taking his post-doctoral studies in Baltimore USA.