Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Steel, Dharmendra Pradhan, remotely flagged off the first supply of used cooking oil (UCO) based biodiesel blended diesel under the EOI Scheme from the Indian Oil Corporation’s (IOCL) Tikrikalan terminal, Delhi.
To create an eco-system for collection and conversion of UCO into biodiesel and developing entrepreneurship opportunities, the Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas & Steel, along with the Minister of Health & Family Welfare, Science & Technology and Earth Sciences, had initiated expressions of interest (EoI) for procurement of bio-diesel produced from used cooking oil on the occasion of World Biofuel Day on 10 August 2019.
Such EoIs are being periodically released by Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs). In Phase-I, 11 EoIs were floated between 10 August 2019 and 09 November 2020 for 200 locations. Publication of EoIs has been extended for one more year up to 31 December 2021 for 300 locations across the country.
Under this initiative, OMCs offer periodically incremental price guarantees for five years and extend off-take guarantees for 10 years to prospective entrepreneurs. So far, Indian Oil has also issued 23 LoIs for biodiesel plants with a total capacity of 22.95 crore ltr (557.57 tpd).
Under this initiative, Indian Oil has received 51 kilo ltr of UCO-biodiesel at its Tikrikalan terminal in Delhi as of 31 March 2021.
Apart from this, Indian Oil has started constructing eight biodiesels plants across Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.
Biodiesel is an alternative fuel, similar to conventional or fossil diesel. It can be produced from vegetable oils, animal fats, tallow and waste cooking oil. Also, biodiesel is rapidly biodegradable and completely non-toxic.