Chinese Green Fuel Firm Launches Project on Gutter Oil

Chinese green fuels company MotionEco has launched a scheme in the city of Nanjing to collect used cooking oil (UCO) and gutter oil for conversion into biofuel for use in diesel vehicles.  Dubbed the Sustainable Oil Alliance, the project was a collaborative effort between MotionEco and Shell, a global oil company.  The project was one of the first to develop commercial schemes to collect UCO by using a completely open and transparent tracking system for sourcing the feedstock.  

Liu Shutong, founder of MotionEco, said the  project aims to address China’s problem of UCO being sold illegally for reuse in food production as gutter oil.  China Daily said, the country is the world’s largest cooking oil consumer and generates millions of UCO annually, around which had formed an illegal industry that filtered UCO from restaurants fryers, sewer drains, grease traps and other sources for resale.  The gutter oil, as the product was called in China, had been linked to causing illness and even some forms of cancer.  However, it still found regular use due to being cheaper than genuine cooking oil.  

To address the problem, MotionEco was now working to create a distribution channel for the production and consumption of gutter oil-based renewable diesel that could not only eliminate gutter oil from the food chain but also provide high quality transport fuels that could cut CO2 emissions by 90%, said Liu.  The company was aiming to supply 50,000 litres of renewable diesel to Nanjing this year.  Based in Shanghai, MotionEco is a leading Chinese proponent on UCO and green fuels, such as waste-based biodiesel and hydrotreated vegetable oil.