Now, in what could be a win-win for public health, environment and energy security, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has launched an initiative, Repurpose Used Cooked Oil (RUCO), to recover used cooking oil (UCO) from vendors and food industry, and to use it for the production of biodiesel by the year 2022.
Coordinated action
India has the potential to recover 220 crore litres of used cooking oil for the production of biodiesel by 2022 through a coordinated action, it is believed.
An FSSAI press release said it may also look at introducing regulations to ensure that companies that use large quantities of cooking oil hand it over to registered collecting agencies to convert it into biofuel. It wants businesses using more than 100 litres of oil for frying, to maintain a stock register and ensure that UCO is handed over to only registered collecting agencies.
Talks held
The FSSAI is already in discussions with the Biodiesel Association of India to establish a nation-wide ecosystem for collection of UCO and its conversion to bio-diesel. Under RUCO, 64 companies at 101 locations have been identified to enable collection.
