Waste into wealth? A Delhi firm to convert 100 tons of used cooking oil a day into bio-diesel

Convert waste into wealth is truly put into practice by a Delhi firm, which plans to go big by converting used edible oil into bio-diesel, helping the government to save huge foreign exchange. This will also help the country go green and save people from health hazards.

Though bio-diesel is already manufactured in India as a by-product from residual in refining crude palm oil for edible purposes, mainly in southern states, it is for the first time used cooking oil is being converted into bio-diesel in India.

A young third generation businessman and first-generation manufacturer, Shiva Vig has set up a company in Delhi BioD Energy India, a waste management company, that will convert 100 tons of used cooking oil a day into bio-diesel.

“The trial production will begin this month end and will go on full stream by next month,” Vig told DNA Money.

The idea behind this project is waste management, he said, adding it will also help in reducing dependency on imported crude oil, fighting pollution, managing illegal discharge of oil into a drainage system that contaminates water and clogs drainage system. Above all, it will check adulteration of edible oil.

Repeated use of cooking oil is extremely harmful to health. Various medical studies show that used oil when consumed, lead to life-threatening diseases like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, heart disease, cholesterol and many more.

BioD is creating a state-of-the-art collection network for used cooking oil in Delhi-NCR and will soon expand to other parts of India to source raw material.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi government has come out with a biofuel policy, which aims to achieve 0.5% blending of biodiesel in diesel by 2020 and 5% by 2030.

According to The Statistics portal, the world production of biodiesel is 2,80,00,000 tonne and India’s contribution to it was a mere 2,00,000 tonne.

But the potential for used cooking oil collection in Delhi NCR is huge. As per the CARE report, the average consumption of oil in India is 14.4 kg per person per annum. Total consumption in Delhi alone is 6,76,800 tonne per year. Even a 10% collection will result in a sizeable production of bio-diesel. India consumes 82 million tonne of edible oil annually.

China produces lakhs of tons of bio-diesel from what they call ‘gutter oil’. China collects oil sludge in gutters and converts them into bio-diesel, which not only unclogs the drains but also produce critical fuel. While used cooking oil is easiest to convert into bio-diesel followed by animal fat. Acid oil processing into bio-diesel is the most difficult. While processing edible, about 3-5% acid oil is produced.

The higher the free fatty acid (FFA), the more expensive is the process to convert into bio-diesel. In bio-diesel FFA is around 5%. In used cooking oil, FFA is around 15-16 per cent and it has to be brought down to 4-5% for making it into bio-diesel. In case of animal fat, FFA is 40% and in acid oil, it is as high as 80%.

Vig said he is also toying with the idea of setting up an integrated park in collaboration with a Finland professor to extract tallow from dead cattle and buffaloes and converting them into bio-diesel.

Earlier, the government had allowed the sale of bio-diesel only to oil marketing companies. The government has now relaxed rules to allow the sale of bio-diesel to private parties as well. Transport operators, rural pump sets and diesel generators use biodiesel extensively as it is cheaper than diesel.

Both import and export of biodiesel is banned in India, which imports 80% of crude oil. A 5% blending of bio-diesel will save a foreign exchange of nearly $10 billion annually.

Vig is setting up another plant of similar capacity in Dubai for exporting bio-diesel from there to Europe. Getting used cooking oil and animal fat is no problem there. In India used cooking oil is quite expensive and is procured at around Rs 30 per litre in view of huge demand from wayside restaurants and for adulteration.

Source: DNA Money