Used Cooking Oil

Basics

• Often abbreviated as UCO
• A Waste Product from Cooking; Largely Deep Frying
• A Feedstock in Bio-Petrochemistry
• Can also be used directly (albeit uncleanly) in Waste Oil Burners
• There may be some minor distinctions but for now “Waste Vegetable Oil” and “WVO” will redirect here

Things to Note

• (From User: Eric via hands on experience)
  • It can contain a decent amount of solids so most plants incorporate filtration or Sedimentation (sometimes with a Filter Aid or Flocculant ) phases
  • It can become quite viscous (albeit not as bad as Sixth Oil ) so Heater Coils are often needed
    • Although these then need to be kept clean
• It can be quite stinky so Odor Engineering Controls are advisable
• Unlike many petroleum products which may repel or even kill insects and other pests, WVO ATTRACTS Mosquitoes and other bugs so Vector Control / other info related to controlling them such as Bug Lights and Air Curtains etc may be relevant
• Feedstock Variability/Contamination are worth considering
• Although heavily Fuel Agnostic systems or a policy of “Gasify and Start Over” (Via G2L etc) may alleviate this issue

Internal Links

• Fats, Oils, and Grease
  • A related term, although it includes heavier solids recovered from Cleaning of Equipment etc
• Grease Trap (A Method of Collecting Irresponsibly Disposed of UCO, or Small Amounts that Accumulate in Commercial Kitchen Environments)
  • A similar device is used for Car Washes / Vehicle Wash Bays albeit it yields a heavy/nasty sludge
• Kitchen Exhaust Cleaning (Need to look into recovery systems)

External Links

• The Wikipedia Page on Used Cooking Oil
• Dar Pro Solutions' Website (They are a UCO Collection + Processing Company) ]