Oregon’s biodiesel producers compete for waste cooking oil as restaurants see windfall

In Oregon, competition is heating up for waste vegetable oil. Restaurants, which used to pay for haulage of waste product, are in some cases able to charge for their oil. The oil has a retail value of up to $1.20 per gallon for Portland’s biodiesel industry. Biodiesel now accounts for up to 20 percent of the used oil market.

Waste cooking oil has gained in popularity as the price of other feedstocks has rises by more than 50 percent in some cases. In Cuba, the United States Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay announced conversion to a biodiesel blend. The base, which is cut off from contact with Cuba, will produce fuel from a pool of 18,000 gallons per year of waste cooking oil housed on the base.

The City of Portland’s Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) went into effect this year and Oregon’s RFS goes into effect January 1, 2008. The B2 mandate in the RFS takes effect only after local producers hit the 5 million gallon production mark. However, Green Fuels in Klamath County, fell short of its 1 million gallon production goal due to a shortage of canola oil at affordable prices for a small-scale production.

SeQuential Pacific, a local producer, said that local producers can make a maximum of 20 million gallons of biodiesel a year.

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