As of December, McDonald's delivery trucks in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have logged over 1 million kilometers (800,000 miles) on 100-percent, unblended biodiesel made from recycled cooking oil used in the chain's restaurants. The program, begun 17 months earlier, isn't the only one the company oversees: similar programs are in place in the US, Europe, and Australia.
When I write about biofuels, I usually look at plant feedstocks that can be grown and efficiently converted into high-performance biodiesel and other kinds of transportation fuels. I don't cover the small, local, recycled cooking oil initiatives I've seen in my own town, and in other areas. Why? Because they haven't seemed serious or large-scale enough to make a difference or help advance the technology. For instance, many of them required converted engines.
But McDonald's has changed my mind. They are anyone's definition of big. And they've been at this for a few years.
The company's sustainability program now includes almost 75 percent of eligible US restaurants, and the number is expanding. Used cooking oil is taken to a distribution facility and sold to various companies for reuse, including those that make biodiesel. McDonald's USA says the average participating US restaurant recycles almost 1,450 gallons of used cooking oil every year.
In Europe, more than 80 percent of the used cooking oil is converted into biodiesel, and McDonald's trucks there get about 37 percent of their fuel from this source. In the UK, 100 percent of restaurant cooking oil goes into biofuel for delivery trucks in that region.
In the UAE, 100 percent of McDonald's restaurants send all their used cooking oil to biodiesel maker Neutral Fuels, which converts it to 100 percent biodiesel, unblended with petroleum-based fuels, for McDonald's UAE's entire fleet of delivery trucks. Neutral Fuels operates an entirely closed-loop system. The company was the first commercial producer of 100 percent biodiesel in the Middle East.
On its website, Neutral Fuels points out that the risks of depending on agricultural biofuel feedstock are much higher than depending on recycled cooking oil as a consistent source of supply, since feedstock can account for up to 95 percent of biodiesel production costs. "Used cooking oil, ordinarily a waste product, substantially reduces this cost and improves the financial viability of biodiesel production. Securing a predictable volume and quality of used cooking oil gives us a level of consistency that allows us to build an appropriately sized biorefinery to optimize profitability for all parties and stabilize pricing."
Neutral Fuels says it collects more than 25,000 liters (6,604.3 gallons) of used cooking oil every month by the same trucks that use the biodiesel, and that deliver fresh cooking oil and other supplies to the restaurants. The company claims that biodiesel is better at lubricating engines than petroleum-based diesel, helping to slow down wear and prevent failure, and also acts as a cleansing agent in fuel systems to improve efficiency.
The company's conversion process includes a patented glycerine separation method that it says eliminates the variability caused by traditional, complex processes such as centrifuging. It also uses a flash drum technology for more reliable recovery of methanol that produces a higher quality fuel than traditional methods, and waterless purification, which produces more consistent fuel.
Wow, I never thought I'd be a supporter of McDonald's, given how I feel about fast food and that industry's ethical and environmental practices in general...but this is really great! It's really good to see a big company like this take the lead on using recycled materials for fuel. Let's hope others follow! Thanks for covering this, Ann...super-interesting stuff.
Elizabeth, I never eat at McDonald's or any other junk food outlet. Which is probably why I didn't know they'd started a huge biofuel program. I wouldn't say this has made me a supporter--they've almost single-handedly changed American agriculture, and not for the better (see a book called Fast Food Nation). But, as the reporter in the Green Prophet said last year, covering this story when it began, about the effects of all that methane from beef, "...McDonalds has to take these measures since their business has, overall, such a detrimental environmental impact." http://www.greenprophet.com/2011/07/uae-mcdonalds-greases-its-100-biodiesel-delivery-fleet/
Yes, I know how horrible McDonalds is and am familiar with that book...terrible, eh? And like you, I still don't really support them as a company. But even if they are doing this for business purposes and not altruistically, hopefully it will have a positive impact on the environment and biofuel endeavors...
It's possible that McDonald's developed the fuel simply to save money, but I'd like to think that they did it because they recognize that their large presence demands corporate responsibility.
Many large companies like McDonald's have instituted sustainability programs--and then actually done something about sustainability, such as this--because of overwhelming consumer demand. At least, that's what the bioplastics and biofuels companies, and the research firms, tell me. Generally speaking, companies with sustainability programs figure out what steps they can take that will either eventually save money, or at least not spend more than they're doing with existing solutions, which makes sense. Because of this, a lot of good has been done, and new technologies have been invented and/or proven out. All good.
Glad I'm not the only one who's read that book. What I'm hoping is that McDonald's program will serve as a huge test case for this kind of biofuel, and help shake out any kinks in the related processing or other technologies, as well as serve as a very public example that showcases what biofuels can do.
I agree, Liz. McDonald's, or fast food in general, may not be the best choice, but it's nice to see the company trying to do the right thing.
That being said, I will admit that I allow my daughter to indulge in a happy meal every once in a while. Besides the hamburger, the fries are substituted with apple slices and they offer milk in place of the standard soda. So, how bad can it be?
Ha, Jenn, I can completely relate to McDonald's as a "guilty pleasure." There is actually one in the area here in Portugal (they are everywhere, of course!) and I have gone maybe three times in the three years I have lived here. Once a friend and I went and promised we would never speak of what we did again. ;) But if they are trying to be greener in their practices, it makes me feel a little bit better about an occasional indulgence. At least all that horrible oil is going to a good cause!
Theres some comfort in learning that they actually change the cooking oil every now and then. Not every falafel bar does this on a consistent basis.
It would be interesting to learn how much energy derived from conventional fossil fuel is required to refine the used oil into IC-engine worthy biodiesel. The saving might not be as great as it appears at first. In fact, un-refined oil could be used to generate electricity via steam turbines to power the deep-fryers, thus saving at the other end of the chain.
Very informative Ann. I certainly applaud McDonalds for this effort and I, like everyone else, hopes this was seen as a corporate responsibility and not solely as a money-making venture. The very fact they were looking is laudable. Let's hope other companies follow suit and do what they can relative to conservation.
Thanks, bobjengr. I don't see anything wrong with McDonald's saving money from a green venture that also reduces carbon emissions. I think it's naive to expect that they wouldn't want to do it for that reason. Many companies have said they're happy to convert to biofuel, or be sustainable in other ways, as long as it's also economically feasible. Such as DuPont saying it's happy to shift all its performance plastics products to bioplastics--assuming that it makes both technical and economic/financial sense to do so http://www.designnews.com/document.asp?doc_id=239662 That, after all, is the real world.
Engineers are a Special Breed. They bitch about everything except thier own.Anybody who recyccles anthing should be supported and praised whether it Mc Donalds, GE or Walmart.
These Big companies have the muscle and money to try the recycle programs and it should be supported every which way we can.
It is sorry to find the same McDonalds who say that they have collected only 1500+ gallons of to recycle? Very strange since there are probably 10,000+ resturants in US?
linus52, thanks for your comments. The article states that, in the US, the *average* participating restaurant recycles 1,450 gallons of used cooking oil per year. The total is obviously a lot larger than that.
cookiejar, my bad--but your conversion is also wrong. My bad was taking the conversion given in source material instead of checking it with an online conversion engine as I usually do. Those give me 621,371 miles, not the 621,388 you cited.
We're moving from trivia to nitpicking over the number of digits used in conversion. The conversion factor I used was 1.6093 Km/mile. You conversion factor calculates out to 1.609344498. We're talking about a difference of 0.0027% There is no way the vehicles odometers would be that accurate.
In any case, the original error of your article according to your calculation was a significant 28.747% and according to mine was 28.744%. In either case a significant error magnified by the headline.
As the original figure was "over 1 million kilometers" lets just say "over 600,000 miles" rather than (800,000 miles) would have done the trick.
The story states that these 800,000 miles have been loged in the UAE. Does teh UAE know about this? I can't see how they would allow a substitute for petroleum-based fuels to be used in their countries.
Gorski, the UAE definitely knows. In McDonald Arabia's press release (link given in my article), it says that the project was funded in part by Dubai FDI, the foreign investment promotion arm of the Department of Economic Development.
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