After frying frites, bitterballen, churros or arancini, many may not think twice about disposing of the used cooking oil. However, waste oils like these can be hazardous: ‘One litre of waste oil can contaminate one million litres of water. Waste oils in rivers, lakes and streams threaten aquatic life. Also, if waste oils are left on the ground, they can severely contaminate the soil’, according to the European Commission.

At Cargill’s facility in the port of Ghent, Belgium, used cooking oil and other residual oils and fats are treated as raw materials. The site turns them into biodiesel for trucks and ships, putting circularity into practice on an industrial scale.

The raw materials are first cleaned in a pre-treatment process before being converted into biodiesel, also known as FAME – fatty acid methyl ester – which Cargill delivers to customers. In this way, residual materials get a second life as fuel, mainly for road transport and shipping. Ghent’s location provides easy access to shipping, rail and road transport.

The facility is one of the largest of its kind in Europe. As Mélanie René, Bioenergy EMEA Manufacturing & Supply Chain lead, Cargill, explains:

‘Our teams continue to look for ways to process different types of waste streams. We are not only investing in new facilities; we are also continually working to improve efficiency and make the most of our capacity, so we can serve our customers as well as possible.’

Since production began, biodiesel produced in Ghent is estimated to have helped reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 1,188,000 tonnes compared with fossil diesel. That is equivalent to taking about 550,000 cars off the road for a year.