Have you ever had a craving for something greasy or deep-fried, like onion rings, calamari, deep-fried mars bars or some McNuggets?
Deep-fried foods, like the ones pictured, use cooking oil. Source: Shock Mansion
Those food items all share a common factor; restaurants fry and cook these foods with cooking oil, especially for those deep-fried items going in the fryer.
Now when you think of the cooking oil that is used, you’d probably expect it to be disposed as waste after use and that would be the end of it.
However, multiple studies have been done around the world, specifically in China and Vietnam, where researchers produce biodiesel – a biofuel, using cooking oil.
Biofuels sustainably replace fossil fuels. Biofuels are typically plant based fuels similar to fossil fuels, which we fill our cars with. The key difference is that biofuels use plants grown in the present day, whereas fossil fuels are ancient sources of plant and biological matter.
Biofuels, while more sustainable, are not as easily produced as originally thought. Maintaining and growing crops are highly energy intensive and many conservationists, including Jane Goodall, think that the crops should remain strictly as a food source. However, with oil prices rising and carbon dioxide levels in the air increasing, finding a sustainable approach to fossil fuels will help reduce global warming and provide both ecological and economical benefits.
This is where biodiesel comes in. Biodiesel is a well known biofuel that is used throughout Europe as a fuel source for cars. Presently, it is still being produced using plant crops, but new advancements are being made for how biodiesel can be sourced.
Biodiesel already fuels cars in certain European countries. Source: Wikimedia Commons
Two different studies, one done in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam and the other in China have successfully converted waste cooking oil from local restaurants into biodiesel. Both methods use transesterfication, and reagents – potassium hydroxide (KOH) and methanol to synthesize biodiesel. Each study used a two-step synthesis, where the reagents were heated for an extended time.
These have been highly successful, producing biodiesel yields between 88-97%. Besides the high yields, the researchers from the study in Ho Chi Minh City, say that their biodiesel required only minor modifications to work in engines.
While places around the globe are looking at cooking oils as the alternative, a similar study is going on in our own backyard. Student members of Enactus, a non-profit organization at UBC have been researching and converting cooking oil used by UBC Food Services into biodiesel, in an initiative called Green Pursuit.
With so many different groups and organizations looking for the solution, it could be in the near future where you are enjoying a greasy burger with fries and the oil produced from it would then fuel your car.
Biodiesel converted from cooking oil could be what we fill up our cars with in the near future. Source: Pixabay
– Jessica Hasker
