Economic and Environmental Impacts of Collecting Waste Cooking Oil for Biodiesel Production

As petroleum becomes increasingly costly, alternatives will be needed to meet increasing energy demands. Biofuels, and biodiesel in particular, could be a near term solution for providing a transitional fuel to meet the energy demands of the transportation sector. The use of waste cooking oil (WCO) as a feedstock can reduce the cost of producing biodiesel. By collecting and using biodiesel locally its cost can be further reduced. This study describes the development of a simulation model to analyze the costs and emissions associated with waste cooking oil collection for the local production and use of biodiesel.