TECHNOLOGY TURNS USED COOKING OIL INTO FUEL Demand for used cooking oil heats up as technology turns it into fuel

The year 2020 has proved that nothing in this world is guaranteed. And when used cooking oil is deemed as valuable in its own way as gold, silver and diamonds it seems like our entire perspective on value has been turned upside down.

The demand for used cooking oil has grown phenomenally over the last few years, thanks to its increasing use as a raw material in biodiesel, and the development of technology enabling its adaptation for use in products such as detergents, soaps, paints and lubricants.

The size of the global used cooking oil market is projected to reach $8.48 billion by the end of 2027, according to global research company Fortune Business Insights, up from $5.50 billion in 2019.

But successfully turning cooking oil into a usable product, such as biodiesel, takes years of expertise.

James, 44, has always been interested in the natural world. Growing up near Stroud, he studied zoology at university, followed by environmental assessment and management. “That was back in the 1990s,” he said. “And it’s interesting to reflect that there hasn’t been much change in the fundamental science since then. What we know now we knew then.”

After repeated use cooking oil begins to break down, building up toxins that can be dangerous to human health. Good restaurants and kitchens will change their oil frequently and dispose of it safely, others will sell the oil on, perhaps to another restaurant, or to a street food vendor, and the health risk will increase. If it’s disposed of carelessly into the environment it can pollute aquifers and block drainage systems. Collecting the oil and converting it to sustainable fuel is the most responsible way to deal with it, keeping people healthy and the environment clean as well as saving carbon.

Gloucestershire-based Green Fuels, the world’s leading distributed-scale biodiesel and advanced biofuels company, has been pioneering the technology and chemistry of sustainable fuels since 2003. Waste-derived biodiesel is one of the most carbonefficient fuels available, and Green Fuels’ equipment has displaced an estimated 6.5 million tonnes of carbon emissions (CO2 equivalents) to date. A fact of which company founder James Hygate is particularly proud.

Wanting to make a positive difference, he began making his own fuel. “I’ve always been a bit of a tinkerer and I learned from the internet that I could make fuel from waste cooking oil. The important thing is that it is from a biological source. It is a net zero carbon fuel.”

But isn’t all the hype about electric vehicles now? Why bother making biofuels if we are all going to be driving electric cars by 2030?

The right fuel for the right job

“It’s about using the right fuel for the right job,” says James. “For most commuting and general road use, we should all drive electric cars, or perhaps ones powered by green hydrogen. But if you have to move something heavy a long way, then biofuels are the solution.”

James isn’t just talking about heavy lorries. The 20-strong team at Green Fuels is also working on aviation and marine fuel. “We are building Europe’s first waste-to-sustainable aviation fuel plant at Berkeley in Gloucestershire,” he explained. It’s an EU-funded project with BA as a strategic partner.

It is interesting that a relatively small player in a huge market should be making such progress. But the decentralised technology Green Fuels builds is scaled to the available, sustainable, feedstock supply and perfect for developing biofuels markets.

“Transport is responsible for around 23 per cent of all human CO2 emissions, and increasing at a faster rate than any other sector. Experts agree that reducing the impact of transport will be critical in combating climate change. This is our mission at Green Fuels,” he added.

Last year, Wakud International LLC, Green Fuels’ joint venture in the Sultanate of Oman, signed a partnership agreement with Modern Arabian Projects LLC for the collection of used cooking oil for conversion into biodiesel. The Oman facility is 20 tonnes production a day which is pretty much all the waste oil in Oman.

Green Fuels has formed a joint venture with Indian company Aris Bioenergy to leverage Aris’s considerable experience in used cooking oil collection in Mumbai. This feedstock will be transformed into biodiesel in a Green Fuels FuelMatic GSX20 biorefinery to be located between Mumbai and Pune, the first of 20 planned facilities. The joint venture is tendering to supply the offtake from this and future plants to India’s three stateoperated Oil Marketing Companies.

True innovation comes from radical ideas

While Green Fuels’ priority is to accelerate the adoption of biodiesel and advanced biodiesel production in places such as Oman, India and South America, the company has also set up a separate entity, Green Fuels Research, which is investigating some fairly radical ideas, including the development of fuel from maggots, and repurposing sugar cane waste as fuel.

Another project, called SALMO, is a Maritime Research and Innovation UK initiative supported by the UK Department for Transport, which will convert waste biomass from salmon farming into drop-in fuels suitable for use in marine diesel engines.

The UK has some of the world’s leading salmon farms. In Scotland, more than 200 fish farms produce more than 150,000 tonnes of salmon a year. Processing waste (the heads and skin etc) produces around 20,000 tons of waste oil, and the fuel from it would save more than 34,000 tonnes of CO2 per annum.

Offbeat such ideas might be, but true entrepreneurs don’t take any ideas off the table until they have been thoroughly investigated. Returning to the point made at the beginning – who would have predicted a decade ago that repurposed used cooking oil would be so valuable.

There is no single answer to reducing the climate impact of transport, and no perfect solution according to James. Alongside technology improvements, behavioural changes will have to happen. These may be easy, like doing more shopping online, or working from home; they may be more difficult, like reducing the amount we fly.

James said: “What drives us at Green Fuels is ensuring that sustainable, net-zero-carbon fuels are included in the mix, which will mean that we can continue to move goods, to travel, to make the world a small place, providing we do so responsibly.”