Biodiesel production from Used Cooking Oil (UCO) and other biowaste streams has the potential to grow exponentially in the Sultanate of Oman thanks to two key drivers: Firstly, burgeoning entrepreneurship among young Omanis exploring opportunities in the expanding circular economy, and secondly, new initiatives by government authorities to facilitate the collection, aggregation, and processing of recyclable wastes at processing sites.
Such waste streams – spanning UCO, aluminium cans, cardboard cartons, scrap iron and other metals, and electronic wastes – have long been siphoned away to lucrative recycling markets in Oman’s neighbourhood, depriving small Omani businesses of the opportunity to utilise these resources locally.
But with Omani authorities, chiefly the Environment Authority, ROP Customs and Oman Environment Holding Company (be’ah), plugging loopholes in existing regulations while rolling out supportive legislation, this outflow of commercially valuable waste streams is being dramatically curtailed.
Credit for prodding Omani agencies into action goes to one of Oman’s best-known circular economy advocates. Maher bin Mohammed Al Habsi is highly regarded as a pioneer in waste oil recycling and reuse. He co-founded Wakud, which operates a state-of-the-art UCO recycling plant at Khazaen Economic City. The biorefinery – the only one of its kind in Oman – produces biodiesel from waste oils, some volumes of which are being lifted by local energy companies and public sector organisations to demonstrate their support for environmental initiatives.
But getting to where Wakud is today was an uphill struggle. Launching operations in 2018, a persistent hassle for the young startup was the challenge of securing enough UCO volumes to operate the biorefinery at its target capacity of 20,000 tonnes per annum. Although this figure represents just a fraction of the estimated UCO volumes generated annually in the capital city alone, the plant often operated below capacity for want of adequate feedstock. That was primarily because of a small handful of shady players who, by offering a premium to the waste generators such as hotels, restaurants and industrial caterers, managed to capture the lion’s share of collected UCO. These volumes would inevitably find their way out of Oman to markets in the regional neighbourhood and the Indian subcontinent, where UCO commands better prices than in Oman.
In recent months, this route used by the irregular collectors to channel UCO out of the country, often by misdeclaring the goods, has been shuttered by authorities as part of a government-led effort to support the growth of indigenous recycling industries. With better awareness, growing numbers of UCO generators are earmarking their waste streams for biodiesel production at Wakud’s Khazaen facility.
Spawning an ecosystem
But beyond the underlying objective of transforming a waste commodity into a commercially valuable and low-carbon fuel resource, Wakud is also catalyzing the growth of a wider ecosystem rooted in the circular economy. In one such beneficial spinoff from the initiative, small Omani-owned SMEs are being signed up to support the collection of waste cooking oil from the facilities of generators. As the collection system expands beyond Muscat to other major towns and cities around Oman, Maher sees potentially scores of SMEs getting gainfully involved in this process.
Boding well for the growth prospects of domestic recyclers like Wakud is a proposal by be’ah to roll out an online platform designed to regulate all trades involving recyclable commodities. Once operational, generators, collectors, transporters and recyclers of all types of recyclable wastes will have to transact their business via this portal. Consequently, all of the respective participants in the supply chain, starting from the generators to the recyclers, will be required to register on the platform.
The ultimate goal, says be’ah, is to maximize value creation by commercializing the waste sector—an initiative that also has the potential to ignite the growth of SMEs and entrepreneurship in the resulting circular economy.
One key segment that is expected to benefit from the bidding platform is the fledgling biodiesel sector. Based on figures shared by be’ah, roughly half of the estimated 94,000 tonnes of cooking oil currently imported into Oman should ideally be captured after use for processing into biodiesel or other sustainable products. But the collection is barely around 4,000 tonnes per annum, mainly from industrial caterers, major hotels and food industry operators. In comparison, the collection potential of UCO can be as high as 11,000 tonnes per annum, says be’ah.
Lately, growing numbers of public and private sector organisations have announced pledges to offtake some of Wakud’s biodiesel as a low-carbon alternative for their transportation requirements. The list includes Oman Oil Marketing Company, ARA Petroleum, BP, Alshawamikh Petroleum, OARC Sohar, Sohar Port, Nakheel Oman, Schlumberger, Oman Airports, Masirah International Marine and 44.01. State-owned public transport company Mwasalat has also operated a few routes using a blend of biodiesel. Renaissance Services and Al Mouj have also agreed to channel all waste oil generated at their facilities to Wakud’s biorefinery.
Wakud’s longer-term goal is to produce enough biodiesel to sustain the operation of a network of fuel stations dispensing a blend of green fuel and conventional diesel. Wakud aims to start with a B5 blend (5% biodiesel blended with 95% diesel) given the challenges of producing adequate quantities of biodiesel to supply the market.
Level playing field
Wakud is also banking on the government to level the playing field for biodiesel producers who find themselves competing with state-subsidized diesel. Discussions with the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology have begun to pay off. Following the successful trial operation of a handful of buses on a B20 blend of biodiesel, the Ministry has announced that the uptake of locally produced biodiesel by state-owned buses will be ramped up over the next seven years through 2030. Other government ministries, including the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Investment Promotion and the Environment Authority, are expected to announce measures advocating the use of greener fuels as part of their energy transition strategies.
Galvanised by these positive developments, Wakud is embarking on plans to expand the biodiesel production capacity of its Khazaen plan to 70 – 100 m3/day of B100. In conjunction with this expansion, Wakud also aims to deploy cutting-edge FFA (Free Fatty Acid) technology to enhance the production efficiency of the plant.
At the same time, the company is diversifying its feedstock sources by developing agricultural programmes for oil crop cultivation. These crops will provide a sustainable supplement to its UCO supply, ensuring long-term feedstock security. The expanded facility is slated to come on stream during Q1 2025.
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