The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) yesterday showcased the manufacturing of biodiesel refined from waste cooking oil, which the agency said is a valuable resource with the potential to generate domestic sales of about NT$3 billion (US$96.3 million) annually.
At a news conference in Taipei, EPA Department of Waste Management Director-General Wu Sheng-chung (吳盛忠) demonstrated how biodiesel can be obtained via simple chemical reactions in waste fool oil.
Pouring methanol and an alkaline fluid into a beaker filled with waste cooking oil, he said that to produce biodiesel the three liquids are first mixed in the correct proportions, with caustic soda or sodium methoxide added as a catalyst.
The solution then undergoes a process known as transesterification, during which heat and pressure are applied to transform it into biodiesel, Wu said.
It is at this stage that crude glycerine, a by-product that can be used in soapmaking, is obtained, he said.
To make industrial-grade biodiesel, the process is more sophisticated, and the end product must pass tests stipulated by the Bureau of Standards and the EU before it can be sold to oil reprocessing firms, he said.
About 26,000 tonnes of waste cooking oil were recycled in the first half of this year, Wu said.
About 10,000 tonnes were exported — predominantly to South Korea — while about 16,000 tonnes were used by local firms to make biodiesel, Wu added.
He said that the amount of biodiesel exported in the same period was about 6,000 tonnes, with the biggest buyers being UK and Malaysian reprocessing firms.
As biodiesel is more costly abroad, it gives domestically produced biodiesel a competitive edge, he added.
Touting biodiesel as a clean fuel that helps the nation work toward its carbon reduction goals, Wu said that as the fuel has an oxygen content of about 18 percent, it can be fully combusted, thus driving down carbon dioxide emissions.
It is also a healthier alternative to traditional diesel, as it does not produce the potentially carcinogenic polycyclic hydrocarbons that are associated with burning diesel, he said.
He said that more than 100,000 tonnes of biodiesel are derived from recycled cooking oil every year, which have an estimated total market value of about NT$3 billion.
Biofuel is the fourth-largest primary energy source worldwide, after coal, petroleum and natural gas, and the production of biodiesel skyrocketed from 800 million liters to 26.3 billion liters between 2000 and 2013, he said.
He said that the EPA would continue talks with the Ministry of Economic Affairs to promote biodiesel.
“After putting it [biodiesel] to a test for six to 12 months, I believe that the Ministry of Economic Affairs will be more confident [in the fuel],” Wu said.
Energy Bureau Division Director Weng Cheng-yuan (翁正原) said the ministry in May last year terminated a project by state-run oil refiner CPC Corp, Taiwan, to refine biodiesel after the fuel received negative feedback from private firms, who said that biodiesel tended to cause their vehicles to generate less power.
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