[TusharK]

McDonald's has started using biodiesel made from recycled cooking oil to power its refrigerated supply delivery trucks in Mumbai.



The fast food chain had launched a pilot project last year, which was later expanded to all 85 outlets in Mumbai. It has been reported that the company recycles more than 35,000 litres of used cooking oil ever month. This amounts to a saving of over 4,20,000 litres of crude oil annually.

A team from the distribution centre collects used cooking oil from the restaurants. It is then transported to a facility where it is converted into biodiesel. The fuel is then sent back to the distribution centre and is used to power the refrigerated trucks used by McDonald's in Mumbai.

Biodiesel made from used cooking oil is claimed to generate 75% less carbon emissions than conventional diesel. Over the next 4 years, the company plans to replicate this process at 450-500 restaurants. An estimated 15 lakh litres of used cooking oil will then be converted to biodiesel. The company claims that this will reduce carbon emissions by over 4,000 metric tonnes, which is equivalent to planting approximately 2 lakh trees.

Source: The Hindu

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[itsmb]

Wow, very nice and clean initiative. It will surely reduce oil imports and pollution if implemented on pan India basis. Mc D, KFC, Burger King etc are the ones with huge presence in country; if all of them work towards this cause results will be encouraging.

[pedrolourenco]

This has been going on for years now in the US. I have loaded this used cooking oil several times in the US and discharged it in Central America where it was used for powering tractors and other farm machinery.

[Flyer]

Good initiative from McD.

They could also consider accepting used cooking oil from other restaurants who wish to give it for free. I hope, eventually they will be able to implement this pan India.

Other big fast food chains in India can take this as an inspiration and follow.

[pannags]

Originally Posted by TusharK

Biodiesel made from used cooking oil is claimed to generate 75% less carbon emissions than conventional diesel. Over the next 4 years, the company plans to replicate this process at 450-500 restaurants. An estimated 15 lakh litres of used cooking oil will then be converted to biodiesel. The company claims that this will reduce carbon emissions by over 4,000 metric tonnes, which is equivalent to planting approximately 2 lakh trees.

Phew! This hopefully also translates to reducing reusing the same oil for their fries

Anyway, not a big fan of big M, but happy to know they're doing this

[libranof1987]

This is quite interesting. Is it just McD doing this in India? If it is cost effective and has quantifiable benefits, this should be adopted on a much larger scale. Retail chains/hotels will be only happy to have the oil recycled (and hence, get them some money). Low emissions is good, but any impact on FE? Fleet owners will bother about impact on performance rather than emissions.

From what I recall, biodiesels have had a couple of false/abandoned starts? Hope the Govt. explores this possibility.

Originally Posted by pannags

Phew! This hopefully also translates to reducing reusing the same oil for their fries

[GTO]

Good move, McD! A big thank you from Mumbaikars . Now, please also do the same for North India. God knows they really need it .

And while I appreciate your caring about the environment, please also care about your customers in the same way. As of date, your food is JUNK and people like me will never eat it. The last 5 times I visited a McDonalds, I only walked out with black coffee (which is terrific, by the way) as your unhealthy food doesn't appeal to my tastes.

Originally Posted by libranof1987

If it is cost effective

I doubt it. Would definitely be costing them more. McDonalds must be writing it off as a "CSR" expense.

[selfdrive]

What were they doing with the used oil earlier? I wonder what other restaurants do now; throw it away/ flush it down the toilets? The added expense now would be only with collection and reprocessing; I am guessing there would have been some costs involved in disposal.

If this is applied to other restaurants and food processing units, we could soon have trucks belching out fumes that smell like fries or potato wafers or batata vadas perhaps
Just kidding, though I did wish for a moment that it worked that way.

[V.Narayan]

Excellent step by McD. I wonder if their trucks will put on weight consuming their fatty cooking oil

[jinojohnt]

They should also take into account the diesel that is spent on transporting the cooking oil from restaurants to the processing center, and for transporting the bio diesel from the processing center to the trucks - unless they are using the same bio diesel for this transportation too

[selfdrive]

Originally Posted by jinojohnt

They should also take into account the diesel that is spent on transporting the cooking oil from restaurants to the processing center, and for transporting the bio diesel from the processing center to the trucks - unless they are using the same bio diesel for this transportation too

I assume they would be picking up the leftover cooking oil on their return trip from making deliveries. Making another trip only for picking up leftover oil does not make logistical sense.

[Rahul Rao]

Mc donalds is only one chain.
There are 100's of other chain restaurants and stand alone ones all over the country. Collecting, processing used cooking oil into diesel and then selling it to a captive customer base can be a stand alone business.
I'm mentioning captive customer base, as engine performance may differ and tuning may have to be changed.

Rahul

[embee]

Originally Posted by GTO

Good move, McD! A big thank you from Mumbaikars . Now, please also do the same for North India. God knows they really need it .

And while I appreciate your caring about the environment, please also care about your customers in the same way. As of date, your food is JUNK and people like me will never eat it. The last 5 times I visited a McDonalds, I only walked out with black coffee (which is terrific, by the way) as your unhealthy food doesn't appeal to my tastes.

I doubt it. Would definitely be costing them more. McDonalds must be writing it off as a "CSR" expense.

Actually, I agree to your CSR point as they maybe writing off the cost of biodiesel production in their books.

Plus as a company, now they do not need to get in to the hassle of planting more trees as they have already claimed that the Biodiesel made from their "used cooking oil" is claimed to generate 75% less carbon emissions than conventional diesel and furthermore they estimate that 15 lakh litres of used cooking oil will then be converted to biodiesel to fuel their trucks which in turn they claim that the same will reduce carbon emissions by over 4,000 metric tonnes, which is equivalent to planting approximately 2 lakh trees.

They basically know their way around!! Also people who do business with McDonald's are not very happy doing the same (including farmers & allied contractors) but they tend to do because it's volume based and they get caught in the rotation cycle of supply and credit.

[gthang]

Good initiative.

I remember seeing on TV couple of years back about a Police station in Thailand doing this for their fleet of Hilux. They would go around collect used oil from restaurants and street vendors and brew the biodiesel in their backyard.

Glad someone has started here.

Cheers

[bhp_maniac]

Good move by McD IMO A good example for the plethora of food chains across the country. In a country like India where oil is used sumptuously for cooking, this would make a good impact I believe. I hope govt. will come forward and support such initiatives.