(LiveMint)
Indian Oil on Tuesday issued letters of intent for the set up of six plants to make biodiesel from used cooking oil after an “encouraging response” to an expression of interest from the refiners. Plants with an overall capacity to produce 10,200 tons of biodiesel each year are slated for Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, the state-run oil refiner said in a tweet.
In August, Indian Oil, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum released an expression of interest to purchase biodiesel from used cooking oil. The retailers are seeking leftover cooking oils from bulk consumers such as hotels, restaurant and canteens across 100 cities.The retailers will pay Rs.51 ($0.72) per liter to buy biodiesel derived from used cooking oil in the first year, Rs.52.7 in the second year and ₹54.5 in the third. As one of the world’s top edible oil consumers, India uses about 27 billion liters of cooking oil each year, of which 1.4 billion liters can be collected to produce 1.1 billion liters of biodiesel, according to the ministry.
