Plant will convert used cooking oil into bio-diesel

The Haryana plant will be operational from January. It will have the capacity to produce 100-tonne of bio-diesel per day.

threatening diseases like cancer, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and heart, cholesterol related diseases, among many others. Bio-diesel is already being manufactured in India as a byproduct while refining crude palm oil for edible purposes, mainly in the southern states. But it is for the first time that UCO is being converted into bio-diesel in India.

The new bio-fuel policy, announced by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, aims to achieve 0.5% blending of bio-diesel in diesel by 2020 and 5% by 2030. It also aims to produce 2 million tonne of bio-diesel from UCO by 2020. The world production of bio-diesel is 2.8 crore tonne.

Potential for UCO collection in Delhi and NCR is huge. As per a CARE report, the average consumption of oil in India is 14.4 kg per person per annum. The consumption in Delhi alone is 676,800 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.

Both import and export of bio-diesel is banned in India, which imports 80% of crude oil. A 5% blending of biodiesel will save a foreign exchange of nearly $10 billion annually. Vig said the government should incentivise the bio-fuel industry by taking it seriously as is being done in case of ethanol. Moreover, its export should also be allowed, he opined.