100% of all the waste cooking oil we collect is processed into bio-diesel. For every 1 Litre of waste cooking processed, 1 Litre of bio-diesel is produced
Bio-diesel may be treated as an alternative fuel to diesel produced from crude mineral oil, but the fact is that diesel engines were originally designed to run on vegetable-based oils by Rudolf Diesel
The only reason why petroleum diesel has been so popular is that it is cheaper than its vegetable-based brother, as crude oil has little other purpose than to be turned into plastic or burnt!
Bio-diesel may have a strict definition for tax purposes, but we see it more as a generic term, which covers all diesel which is purely vegetable-based, for example:
Yes, the basic diesel engine will run on pure vegetable oil without modification. What you need to realise is that diesel engines like to run at speed and under load. If this is not achieved, engine temperatures will not build up, and you will get incomplete combustion. Hence, the reason why cars running on cooking oil smell like a chip shop is due to unburnt and partially burnt oil in the exhaust gas!
Most modern diesel engines now have high-pressure fuel pumps and so much add-on equipment like DPFs (Diesel Particulate Filters), Ad Blue, etc, that running on SVO is no longer possible.
Same as above, but waste cooking oil is settled to remove heavy acidic fatty content and later filtered down to 10 microns or less.
Bio-diesel is produced by chemically reacting pure vegetable-based oil and or animal fats (both are types of Tri-Glyceride), with methanol using sodium hydroxide (lye/caustic soda) as a catalyst.
See the basic equation below.
This equation (transesterification) shows the reaction of synthesising oils into bio-diesel and its byproduct Glycerin in its simplest form. This equation would be correct if only using pure fresh vegetable oil as the feedstock and 100% pure reactants.
It does not take into account that when using WVO and animal fats, some of the Triglycerides will be broken down into Diglycerides and Monoglycerides + Free Fatty Acids during cooking. Therefore, the actual process of treating used cooking oils is a lot more complicated and will involve pretreatment such as acid esterification,
When using used cooking oil, there is also the added difficulty of water being present in the oil. Luckily, most of the water falls out of the oil under heating, but some remains “stuck” to the oil, and when this is added into the reaction, it creates soap rather than bio-diesel.
This is fine in small quantities as it can be washed out in a further process, but it is something that needs to be avoided.
Commercially, water will be removed by using high-force centrifuges, but it is just as effective to use some gentle heat and settle the oil out over time.
Cater Oils does not produce bio-diesel
We are specialists at selling fresh cooking oils, collecting used cooking oils and refining used cooking oils into a pure used cooking oil product, ready to be turned into bio diesel at one of the UK’s leading bio fuel plants, such as Greenergy.
Greenergy operates one of the UK’s largest biodiesel production plants in Immingham bieing capable of producing 300 million litres of biodiesel per year.
Greenergy also operates its own petroleum and diesel distribution, selling in excess of 20 million litres per day.
Below you will find a list of UK Bio Diesel producers:
