To mark the 150^th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi on 2^nd October as Rashtriya Swachhta Diwas, Secretary, Petroleum and Natural Gas Dr M.M.Kutty today flagged off the publicity vans in Delhi, to generate awareness among the people about the OMCs’ initiative of  converting Used Cooking Oil to Biodiesel.  Wide publicity is being given to the RUCO (Repurpose Used Cooking Oil) initiative  by the Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) to make India “Swachh”  by conversion of used cooking oil, which otherwise would be disposed off in drains, cause spillages/ environmental damage and pose health hazards. Chairman IOCL Shri Sanjiv Singh was also present on the occasion. Similar initiatives are being launched at various places in the country.

The publicity involves wide social media campaign to spread awareness and educate people about the ill effects of used cooking oil and ways to dispose it off for converting it to biodiesel. The publicity vans will also carry the poster messages across 100 cities to spread the awareness. This awareness initiative of the OMCs would be a continuous process in coming days.

Oil Marketing Companies (IOC, BPC & HPC), under the aegis of Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, have floated Expression of Interest (EOI)  across 100 cities of India (details available at https://bpcleproc.in/EPROC/) for supply of Bio-diesel produced from Used Cooking Oil (UCO). The EOI was floated on 10^th August 2019 on the occasion of World Bio-fuel day. The EOI on Bio-Diesel from UCO provides that the entrepreneurs setting up Biodiesel plants get remunerative price and assurance of complete off take of production by the Oil companies.

The consumption of Used Cooking Oil (UCO) poses adverse health effects. During frying, several properties of cooking oil are altered and Total Polar Compounds (TPC) are formed on repeated frying. The toxicity of these compounds is associated with several diseases such as hypertension, atherosclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, liver diseases. Therefore, it is essential to monitor the quality of vegetable oils during frying. Also disposal of UCO in drains causes ecological damage and is an environment concern.

In order to safeguard consumer health, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has fixed a limit for Total Polar Compounds at 25 percent beyond which the vegetable oil shall not be used for cooking. Repurpose Used Cooking Oil (RUCO), launched by FSSAI, provides an ecosystem that will enable the collection and conversion of UCO to biodiesel.

Consumers can give their Used Cooking Oil to authorised aggregators of Used Cooking Oil who will in turn give it to the Biodiesel Manufactures for production of Biodiesel which will be used for blending with Diesel. The details of the RUCO oil aggregators is available at website https://fssai.gov.in/ruco/collection-point.php 

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YB

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