Potential of Biodiesel Production from Waste Cooking Oil in Qatar: Techno-Economic Study

The study focuses on the potential of biodiesel production from waste cooking oil in Qatar from a techno-economic perspective using Aspen Plus. In addition, the study investigated the project's benefits on Qatar's environment by calculating the global warming potential, the interlinkages of fuel with EWF nexus, and the efficiency of used oil as a feedstock compared to vegetable oil and petroleum diesel. The plant capacity was estimated according to the available quantities of waste cooking oil determined by the development bank and imported refined oil products stated by the Ministry for Commerce and Trade. The results of the technical simulation study revealed the project's feasibility, producing 12,096 tonnes/year of 98-99% pure biodiesel. However, the project's economic assessment based on the capital and operating costs, the raw material price, and the plant lifespan in estimating the minimum selling price of 0.58$/kg (2.12QR/kg–1.86 QR/liter) for the fuel, which is 4% below the petroleum diesel selling price. The government's incentivesare still needed to support the industry. Producing waste cooking oil based-biodiesel is beneficial for Qatar. The country's environment can benefit from recycling the used oil by preventing the disposal of liquid wastes into urban drains that can contaminate the limited groundwater. The lower emissions of Biodiesel from diesel engines can mitigate air pollution and reduce the environmental impacts of petroleum fuels on human life. The life cycle analysis from the cradle to the grave highlighted the efficiency of waste cooking oil-based-biodiesel compared to fresh oil-based-biodiesel and petroleum diesel. The analysis results and the allocation scenarios revealed that waste cooking oil-based-biodiesel could be profitable with the government's incentives and less stressful to EWF interlinkages.