China, thanks to her huge population and peculiar cooking ways, currently produces more than 3.7 million tons of waste oils per year, which is 2.13 times the number of total waste oils made in European Union, the U.S. and Canada.
As of Dec 31, 2018, China exported 581164 tons of used cooking oil from Jan, 2018 (the whole year) based on the data from China Customs,the total export volume increased around 69% compared with the previous year. During the first quarter of 2019, China exported 121748 tons of used cooking oil，China is expected to export more than 600000 tons of UCO by the end of 2019. Guangdong, Hebei, Sichuan, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong, Hunan province etc contributed heavily to the whole export.
In China,the main sources of bio-diesel feedstocks are UCO (covering used rapeseed oil, used sunflower seed oil, used peanut oil, used palm oil and other used vegetable oils), gutter oil, spent bleaching clay oil and acid oil. As for the UCO, it only accounts for around 42% of all waste oils. All these waste oils will be further processed, refined, and then exported to Europe in name of 'Industrial Blend Oil', so actually the term (word)‘UCO’we discussed in this topic is NOT referring to the‘pure’used cooking oil, it is referring to a kind of blend oils for industrial purpose. We call it‘Industrial Blend Oil’in China, which is a mix of used cooking oil, gutter oil or other wastes.
In China each province has their own policies or regulations on the management of waste oils, in regard to the UCO manufacturing bases, currently Sichuan, Hebei, Guangdong are the top 3 in China. Hebei claims to have the most UCO plants in China, particularly around Shijiazhuang City. Lots of UCO from North China, covering Beijing, Tianjin, Inner Mongolia etc, has flowed into Hebei area. Shandong has the largest refining capacity with most oil refiners (refineries), they mainly collect UCO from central and eastern China. Sichuan has been a major UCO refining base in western China since 2015 due to their unique cuisine habit. Sichuan is the home of hotpot food, in which lot of cooking oils are used. That's why they have more UCO than other provinces in China. Guangdong is next to South China Sea, and it has been the largest UCO exporter in China since 2016 thanks to its convenient transportation by sea.
Here are the main UCO collectors with ISCC certificates and their locations here in Mainland China at present.
Supplier Location | Number of UCO Collectors with ISCC | Departure China Port |
Jiangsu | 22 | Shanghai |
Hebei | 21 | Tianjin |
Guangdong | 17 | Shantou, Shenzhen |
Hunan | 10 | Changsha |
Sichuan | 8 | Tianjin (Shanghai) |
Anhui | 8 | Shanghai |
Zhejiang | 8 | Ningbo |
Shandong | 7 | Qingdao |
Henan | 4 | Qingdao (Tianjin) |
Hubei | 3 | Shanghai (Wuhan) |
Chongqing | 3 | Shanghai (Chongqing) |
Guangxi | 3 | Fangchenggang |
Fujian | 2 | Xiamen |
Jiangxi | 2 | Shanghai (Ningbo) |
Shanghai | 2 | Shanghai |
Hainan | 1 | Haikou |
Jilin | 1 | Dalian |
Yunan | 1 | Fangchenggang (Shenzhen) |
Remarks: The data was confirmed by Jan, 2019. It might be different this year due to the harsh market in China. |
As for the export destination, currently Netherlands is the largest export destination for China UCO, accounting for around 60.5% of all China UCO export in the first half of 2019. Korea comes next, followed by Spain, Hongkong, Thailand, and UK.
