Environmental analyses of waste cooking oil recycling and complete use practices in Bogor, Indonesia

An estimation of GHG emission of waste cooking oil recycling producing bio diesel fuel, was undertaken in comparison with a complete use of cooking oil, the former is currently promoted in Bogor City, Indonesia, while the latter is commonly practiced by the street food stalls in the region. The functional unit covers, cooking oil production from crude palm oil, cooking use, waste cooking oil collection at a 0.2 recovery ratio in case of recycling, bio diesel fuel or regular diesel fuel production for a 8.865 MJ output, and lightweight vehicle transportation for waste cooking oil collection and diesel fuel delivery. A total GHG emission of 1.25L cooking oil production and a residual 0.25L waste cooking oil recycling for bio diesel fuel production, was estimated as 1.28kg CO₂e including materials, energy, wastes and transportation for collection/delivery, where an estimation of 1L cooking oil production for the complete use was 1.53kg CO₂e including GHG output from regular diesel fuel production, compensating the bio diesel fuel produced by the recycling. The result showed a theoretical 0.256kg CO₂e emission reduction by the 0.25L waste cooking oil recycling, compared with the complete use. However, the estimation was relevant to deep-frying cooking and not stir-frying. It also did not take other oil reduction factors, such as, vapouring, spitting, residual loss in cooking equipment and oil container into consideration, which might not be negligible at small quantity household uses. Further improvement on oil reduction model is necessary.