Published 29th April, 2024
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The USA imported enough used cooking oil (UCO) last year to produce 600M gallons (2.27bn litres) of fuel, The Western Producer reported.
Last year’s UCO imports exceeded the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s estimates by about 550M gallons (2.08bn litres), according to the American Soybean Association (ASA).
In comparison, the amount of canola oil imported for renewable diesel production in 2023 was enough to produce 240M gallons (908,498 litres) of the fuel, the 11 April report said.
As strict blending levels had been introduced for 2023, 2024 and 2025, the EPA said the increase in UCO and tallow imports would lead to a reduction in the use of competing feedstocks such as soyabean oil and canola oil.
“So far, this has displaced over 500M gallons (1.89bn litres) of renewable diesel domestic feedstock and could easily rise to 1bn gallons [3.78bn litres] or more in 2024,” ASA chief economist Scott Gerlt said on the association’s website on 4 April.
Most of the imported UCO was from China, where there were huge supplies, the report said.
While Chinese imports of UCO into the USA were increasing, shipments to the European Union (EU) were declining due to ongoing fraud investigations, The Western Producer wrote.
According to the ASA, EU imports of Chinese UCO fell by almost 600M tonnes in 2023 compared to the previous year, while imports into the USA increased by over 700M tonnes.
Although Canadian Oilseed Processors Association’s executive director Chris Vervaet acknowledged that UCO imports into the USA were “substantial”, he said canola oil shipments had also increased.
“We continue to see record utilisation of canola oil in biofuels in the USA,” he was quoted as saying.
According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), the US biofuel sector used 376M pounds (170,550 tonnes) of canola oil in January compared to 631M pounds (286,216 tonnes) and 616M pounds (279,412 tonnes) of tallow and UCO respectively.