Waste cooking oil powers trucks in Dubai

Dubai: Waste cooking oil — the slimy culprit blamed on blocked drains and smelly kitchens — is now powering trucks in Dubai.

Used vegetable oil from restaurants is being turned into biodiesel for heavy vehicles by the S.S. Lootah Group.

The group said the recycled oil is virtually pollution-free and cheaper than regular petro-diesel. It is also a natural lubricant for vehicle engines, company officials said, adding that the technology is being used in Dubai for the first time.

From waste to energy

Biodiesel has for years powered family cars and schoolbuses in several Western nations — and even runs a train in the UK.

The group, a family-owned business with main interests in construction, mixes bio-fuel with regular diesel before refuelling fleet trucks at its own pumping stations. It can produce 1,000 litres of biodiesel per day during business hours and plans to increase capacity. The company operates 130 trucks on biodiesel.

The journey from waste to energy starts with cleaning and filtering the unwanted oil, delivered by government-approved ‘consolidators' who collect the waste from city restaurants.

Chemicals like methanol and a type of soda base are then added to kickstart the transformation process. The brew is heated up and by-products like glycerol — used in soap making — are removed.

The thick, yellow end-product is mixed with regular diesel and pumped into fuel tanks. Worldwide industry standards maintain that car engines do not have to be modified at all if the biodiesel content is kept within the five per cent mixture rate, company documents show.

The Group's Green Car Pro-gramme has previously seen fleet vehicles run on electricity and compressed natural gas (CNG). It won the Dubai Award for sustainable transport in 2008.

According to a company statement: "Biodiesel is an opportunity to recycle wastes produced in Dubai into environment-friendly fuel.

"We also wanted to prove that within the resources available in Dubai and working in collaboration with all stakeholders, it was very much possible to reduce the carbon footprint."

For the record, there are over a million vehicles on Dubai roads.