Making biodiesel with used cooking oil

DW (English)

What to do with used cooking oil? Companies in Germany and Spain are making it easy for households to get rid of it - and turning it into biodiesel or even bio-jet fuel! Now there's no need to pour it down the drain.

Transcript

00:00Crude oil. It still plays a major role in how we get around.

00:07Most vehicles and aircraft are still powered by fossil fuels,

00:11but combustion engines can also run off alternative sources.

00:16Biofuels like grapeseed or palm oil produce fewer carbon emissions,

00:21but growing crops for biofuels uses up valuable farming land.

00:26Recycled cooking oil is a more sustainable option.

00:30In many countries it's already being added to diesel and petrol.

00:34But more used oil could be recycled and used as fuel,

00:38as examples from Germany and Spain show.

00:43Larissa Hartl is taking part in a project run by the company Jeder Tropfen zählt,

00:49which translates as Every Drop Counts.

00:52She lives with her family in southern Germany.

00:55All her used cooking oil now goes into this container.

00:59In the past, she didn't know what to do with it.

01:03Sometimes I'd keep it, thinking I'd use it for salad dressing,

01:06but often it just went off.

01:08Or I forgot about it, or just used to throw it out.

01:13The project was launched in 2018 in some areas of southern Germany.

01:18The containers can be brought to central collecting points,

01:22located outside supermarkets, for example.

01:26Every few months, Larissa Hartl drops off a full container at her local facility.

01:32The machine spits out a clean, empty tub in return.

01:39A local recycling company regularly picks up the used oil

01:43and refills the machines with empty containers.

01:46The firm Lesch got the idea for the dispensing machines from Spain.

01:52Fifty-six towns and communities in southern Germany

01:55are already taking part in the pilot project.

02:01There are more than 615,000 people taking part in the project.

02:06They live in the areas with the collection system.

02:09One hundred and ten of these machines are already in operation

02:13and more are in the pipeline.

02:18It's of advantage to authorities, too.

02:21If cooking oil is poured down the drain, it can clog sewers.

02:25Getting rid of fat bugs formed from solid waste and fat can be very costly.

02:31The district of Telmessing is already counting the benefit, according to its mayor.

02:38It mainly saves us labor costs.

02:41But of course it's about much more than that.

02:44It's about recycling a resource that would otherwise have gone to waste.

02:50Now the old cooking oil can be recycled.

02:59Telmessing-based company Lesch launched the company every drop counts six years ago.

03:05The firm mainly collects used oil from restaurants and canteens, too.

03:09Most is sold to biodiesel producers.

03:14Some 180 metric tons of used cooking oil from private households

03:18were collected in 2024 alone.

03:21That adds up to a lot of biodiesel.

03:28Transesterification turns one litre of used cooking oil into a litre of biodiesel,

03:33a one-to-one ratio.

03:35Everyone's heard of biodiesel.

03:37You can get it in diesel blends at the filling station

03:40and those blends could include more biodiesel.

03:45In Spain, where a lot more used cooking oil is recycled, that's already the case.

03:51A vehicle can even take it to many filling stations and get fuel vouchers in return.

03:58The recycling system operates on a much bigger scale there.

04:02As well as conventional crude oil,

04:04the refinery in Catajena on the Mediterranean coast

04:08processes the oil from private households and restaurants,

04:11as well as olive oil production leftovers.

04:15Over 200 million metric tons of cooking oil are produced globally each year.

04:20More than half goes to private households.

04:22Under 10% is recycled.

04:25But business analysts say that it's a market with growth potential

04:29and more can still be done to tap private households.

04:32Crude oil companies like Repsol have recognised that potential.

04:36At its Catajena plant, it's using cooking oil to produce bio-kerosene, or SAF,

04:42sustainable air fuel, as it's also known.

04:45The demand for SAF is set to rise in Europe.

04:48An EU regulation stipulates that the amount should increase from 2 to 6% by 2030.

04:55The German Aerospace Centre has tested the environmental impact

04:59of a complete switch over to SAF in the aviation sector.

05:07With our measurements, we could show that the use of sustainable air fuel cuts soot emissions.

05:12That reduces the amount of heat-trapping ice crystals in contrails.

05:17And that, in turn, reduces global warming.

05:21So sustainable fuels can play an important role.

05:25But we have to be careful.

05:27In EU states, up to 80% of biofuels are imported, mainly from China, Malaysia and Indonesia.

05:35Most biofuel there is produced from palm oil.

05:38Its production is a major driver of tropical deforestation.

05:42It also devours valuable arable land.

05:47Until we finally replace conventional combustion engines,

05:51biofuels can help to reduce carbon emissions.

05:54But only if we recycle local resources.

05:58Use cooking oil could be a driver of positive change.

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