Abstract
Waste cooking oil (WCO) has been considered a low-cost and renewable feedstock for the production of biodiesel and biobased products if it can be economically and efficiently collected and recycled. The objective of this case study is to review the scientific background of WCO recycling in the literature in connection with the regulatory and promotional measures in Taiwan under the authorization of a legal waste management system. Furthermore, the updated information about the on-line reporting WCO amounts in Taiwan is also analyzed to illustrate its significant increase in the recycling status of WCO officially designated as one of the mandatory recyclable wastes since 2015. Finally, an overview of available utilization of WCO as biodiesel, fuel oil, and non-fuel related uses is briefly addressed in this paper. It shows that the collected amounts of WCO from residential and commercial sectors in Taiwan significantly increased from 1599 tonnes in 2015 to 12,591 tonnes, reflecting on the WCO recycling regulation effective since 2015. Practically, the most important option for this urban mining is to reuse WCO as an energy source for the productions of biodiesel and auxiliary fuel. Other non-fuel related uses include the production of soaps/detergents, C-18 fatty acids, and lubricants. However, the reuse of WCO as a feed additive should be banned to prevent it from re-entering the food chain.
Highlights
With population and living level on the increase, it has led to a higher demand of edible oils because they provide essential nutrients and energy for everyone’s activities required
The objective of this study is to review the scientific background of waste cooking oil (WCO) recycling in the literature, which can be connected with the regulatory measures of WCO recycling in Taiwan since 2015
One of the easiest approaches to utilizing WCO is to make soap because it is made of a hydroxide base (Na or K) of naturally occurring fatty acids derived from vegetable oils or animal fats [36]
Summary
With population and living level on the increase, it has led to a higher demand of edible oils because they provide essential nutrients and energy for everyone’s activities required. An incident of “food safety scandal” happened in Taiwan in September 2014 [2] In this food scandal, some lard/lard products manufactured by a Taiwanese company might have been contaminated, as they were produced from collected waste oils and/or lard for animal feed. In order to promote the recycling of underutilized WCO from municipal solid waste (MSW), the central competent authority (i.e., Environmental Protection Administration, EPA) in Taiwan promulgated the WCO recycling system under authorization of the Waste Management Act since 2015. Among these regulatory measures, WCO was first listed as one of mandatory recyclable wastes based on its potential for recycling and reuse. An overview of available utilization of WCO as biodiesel, fuel oil, and non-fuel uses is briefly addressed in the paper
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