Bosnia: Biodiesel from Recycled Cooking Oil

Making biodiesel fuel from used frying oil. Photo: Centralina Clean Fuels Coalition

Thanks to donations from our supporters, the town of Tuzla in Bosnia and Herzegovina is now able to process its own biodiesel fuel from a new production facility. This innovative project is now fully funded, with the conversion plant installed and production of biodiesel fuel started.

Tuzla has suffered from a reputation of being one of the most polluted in Bosnia, but this initiative hopes to reverse that label. This “greener” fuel — which began life as waste frying oil collected from a local pastry manufacturer — will be used in the town’s municipal buses. The bus company will be monitoring emissions to evaluate the social and environmental benefit from replacing mineral diesel with cleaner biodiesel fuel.

Funding from Cool Carbon donors has also meant that we are now embarking on a widespread educational program (including TV spots and radio broadcasts), designed to raise awareness of the economic benefits of converting a waste product (rather than disposing of it down sewers), as well as the health impacts of using a cleaner fuel.

This has already generated considerable interest. Since Tuzla likely has enough waste frying oil to supply at least ten conversion plants, there is ample scope to provide fuel for all the town’s buses.

Project replication also provides very real opportunities for alleviating poverty by creating jobs in a country still struggling to emerge from a post-conflict situation.

Biodiesel has significant environmental benefits when compared to mineral diesel:

• It burns more cleanly than mineral diesel, reducing the emissions of hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, sulphates and particulates.
• Biodiesel also has a very low toxicity and quickly biodegrades — as a result, it presents a far lower hazard on spillage than mineral diesel fuel and is safer to handle.

The hope is that project replication will eventually provide sufficient fuel for all municipal buses, in addition to a range of private and agricultural vehicles.