Muenzer’s 1st community-scale UCO biodiesel plant in India opens
European biodiesel producer Muenzer Bioindustrie GmbH has opened its first biodiesel plant outside of Europe in Navi Mumbai, India. According to Harald Sigl, head of corporate communications and public affairs for the Austria-based company, Muenzer Bioindustrie is one of Europe’s largest producers of waste-based biodiesel—producing more than 210,000 tons per year (63 MMgy)—and the largest collector of used cooking oil (UCO) in central Europe.
In 2016, the company officially registered its subsidiary, Muenzer Bharat Pvt. Ltd., in Mumbai, India. The following year, Muenzer Bharat launched the National Used Cooking Oil Collection Mission for India, the goal of which is to help reduce the reuse of UCO in the food industry. Muenzer Bharat is certified by the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification system.
“We started the National Used Cooking Oil Collection Mission for India to support our nation to solve an increasing problem—the wrong disposal and handling of used cooking oil,” said Sanjay Shrivastaava, CEO of Muenzer Bharat. The company aggregates UCO from food business operators.
According to Muenzer Bioindustrie, a team from India’s Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas visited its biodiesel plant in Vienna in 2015 and “was impressed with the concept, and invited the parent company to start this venture.”
Construction of the community-scale biodiesel plant in Navi Mumbai began last year, and the official opening of the production facility just recently took place. The plant is scaled at 3,000 tons (more than 900,000 gallons) per year.
“Our goal is to run a system [like this] in every city with more than a million inhabitants,” Sigl told Biodiesel Magazine.
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