JAKARTA – The used cooking oil (UCO) is usually just thrown away after being used to fry foods. But actually, the UCO can still be utilized as an alternative of crude palm oil (CPO) to produce biodiesel.

Besides creating the economic benefits, the use of UCO as the alternative of CPO will also create health benefits, and protect the environment. As the ongoing biodiesel mandatory program utilizes the CPO to produce biodiesel 30 percent (B30), the government can actually integrate the use of UCO into the national program that will then reduce the use of CPO and reorient it for other purposes.

Based on a report of the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) titled “Potential Economic, Health, and Greenhouse Gas Benefits of Incorporating Used Cooking Oil Into Indonesia’s Biodiesel”, Indonesia has a potential UCO of 1.64 billion liters per year. It is based on the intensive collections from restaurants, hotels, schools, hospitals, office buildings and houses in cities.

Environmentally speaking, the use of UCO can reduce up to six million tons of greenhouse emissions per year. It can also save biodiesel subsidy up to Rp3.6 trillion per year.

Based on ICCT calculation, the biodiesel subsidy saving is derived from the balance of production cost of biodiesel using CPO and the production of biodiesel by using the UCO. The calculation is based on the assumption of the average market index price (HIP) of UCO and price of biodiesel during the period of January – July 2020. Besides reducing the subsidy, the use of UCO can also reduce the use of CPO up to 1.16 million tons per year. It can contribute to the efforts of saving forests up to 321,000 hectares from oil palm plantation expansions. (*)

Source: Koran-Jakarta.com | Featured image bisnis.com