Japan – used cooking oil recycled as bio-diesel fuel

Japanese RCS is an incorporated nonprofit organization located in Kyoto, Japan, that aims to promote a resource-circulating society. It collects used cooking oil from restaurants and households in Kyoto City and recycles it into clean and environmentally friendly bio-diesel fuel



Japan for sustainability (JfS) reports that at present households and restaurants across Japan generate about 400,000 tons of used cooking oil annually. While the used oil from businesses is recycled into animal feed, coating materials, soap, etc., used oil from households is rarely collected or recycled, and is usually disposed of as raw garbage.



Revo International Co., Ltd., a Kyoto-based company and a corporate member of RCS, recycles the collected used cooking oil into a bio-diesel fuel named “C-FUEL”. This bio-diesel fuel emits about ten percent less carbon dioxide and only one-third to one-sixth of the black smoke emitted by ordinary diesel oil.



Containing little sulphur oxide, which causes acid rain, this clean fuel made from recycled resources is drawing attention as a next-generation alternative diesel oil. C-FUEL made from recycled cooking oil is supplied to all of the roughly 220 garbage collection trucks and about 80 city buses in Kyoto City, as well as to other municipal governments, such as Minoo in Osaka Prefecture, and Uji and Yawata in Kyoto Prefecture. The fuel is also supplied to private carriers in other nearby cities.