Repurpose Used Cooking Oil Program in City, BDAI initiates Live Collection
Pune, January 29, 2019
National Capital today witnessed live collection of Used Cooking Oil (UCO) from various Food & Beverages Organisations (FBOs) and authorised Aggregators were recognised to integrate with the flagship Repurpose Used Cooking Oil Program (RUCO). The Program, jointly initiated by Biodiesel Association of India (BDAI) and the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), aims to create awareness about healthy eating and Repurposing UCO to produce Biodiesel which is a clean fuel.
BDAI showcased live collection of UCO at the culmination event of Swastha Bharat Yatra here today at Central Park Connaught Place in the presence of senior Government functionaries, various partners, and other stakeholders. Along with showcasing RUCO Program, the event also highlighted other social innovations including Hygiene Rating Scheme, Save Food, Share Food, Share Joy- Small gesture, big difference and Eat Right Start- up Scheme. These innovations are part of FSSAI year-long ‘Eat Healthy. Eat Right’ Campaign.
“RUCO initiative aims at creating an ecosystem to collect and convert the UCO into Biodiesel thereby ensuring complete removal of harmful UCO from the food chain. This ecosystem will ensure that the used cooking oil, consumption of which is bad for health is not re-entered into the food value chain,” said Mr. Sandeep Chaturvedi, President, BDAI.
“Today, the live collection of UCO started in Delhi. The authorised Aggregators wererecognised and the Biodiesel manufacturers took a pledge to join the initiative. As a part of RUCO recognition, three FBOs from Gujarat and Mumbai who have become RUCO compliant by fulfilling the audit criteria were awarded RUCO Emblem. The RUCO emblem assures the consumer that the outlet is disposing its UCO only to authorised entities,” he added.
Globally UCO is being banned for reuse as edible oil. Following the global trend, India is backing this RUCO and moving ahead in using the UCO as a feedstock for biodiesel. Yantra and Biomax are the leaders since 2008 in processing UCO into Biodiesel and have processed the same from various sources across the world like Saudi Arabia, UAE, China and India.
“We are proud to be associated with FSSAI RUCO in bringing about the RUCO Movement in India,” said BDAI President.
As of now the UCO collection is 250000 litres in the cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and state of Gujarat. The target is to achieve the collection of 50,000 litres per month form these present locations. About 200 aggregators are identified of which 15 are operational. This collection is from about 800 FBO who are in the process of getting RUCO registration.
RUCO Software was tested in Gujarat for several months and today Delhi adopts it. The event indicates that the RUCO software is now is ready to be scaled up in other parts of the country as well.
According to experts, UCO is a major health hazard and its toxicity causes several diseases. Under the new Biofuels Policy of 2018 UCO will be converted into clean fuel, thereby assuring health and sustainable green fuel for energy security.
“While piloting RUCO Application, we had started registering dischargers of UCO. It is very encouraging to note that today we received very encouraging response in Delhi which is a major UCO producer state,” Mr Chaturvedi said.
The Association has assured the Oil marketing companies to provide 2.2Mn Kilo Liters of Biodiesel by 2022 and with this quantity the Blending Programme of the country will get a boost.
