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Steel drums staged on pallets inside a collection warehouse.

07 — Specifications

Used Cooking Oil (UCO)

Recovered cooking oils handled as feedstock for renewable fuel and oleochemical buyers.

UCO trades on measurable quality: free fatty acid content, moisture and impurities decide whether a parcel is workable for the receiving processor. Collection origin, traceability and the sustainability documentation the buyer requires are established before any supply is approached.

Quality parameters

UCO is bought on laboratory results, not description. These are the measures a receiving processor will quote against; the acceptable band is set by the buyer's plant, so every enquiry should state the target and the tolerance.

Parameters that define a parcel

Bands vary by buyer and end use. State the target your offtaker requires rather than assuming a market standard.

ParameterWhy it matters
Free Fatty Acid (FFA)Governs refining loss and pricing. Usually the first figure a processor asks for.
MoistureWater content drives handling loss and can render a parcel unworkable.
ImpuritiesSolids and residue that must be removed before processing.
MIU (combined)Moisture, Impurities and Unsaponifiables, quoted as a single ceiling.
Iodine valueIndicates degree of saturation; relevant to some fuel and oleochemical routes.
SulphurConstrained for certain renewable fuel pathways.
Total contaminationFilterable matter, relevant where the buyer specifies a fuel standard.

What a buyer should state in an enquiry

ItemDetail required
Target FFAMaximum accepted, and whether it is negotiable on price
MIU ceilingCombined figure or individual limits
VolumePer shipment and, if applicable, monthly offtake
DestinationPort and receiving plant
PackingFlexitank, IBC or drums
DocumentationWhich sustainability scheme the offtaker requires

Packing and shipment

Packing formats

  • Flexitank in 20ft container — common for full-container volumes
  • IBC totes — suited to smaller or mixed consignments
  • Steel or plastic drums — used where handling infrastructure is limited
  • Bulk parcel — for vessel-scale movements

Handling points

  • Heating requirement on discharge, where ambient temperature is low
  • Previous cargo history for tanks and flexitanks
  • Sampling at load and at discharge, and which result governs
  • Retention samples held by the inspection company

Origin and traceability

For renewable fuel buyers the paperwork carries as much weight as the laboratory result. A parcel that meets specification but cannot evidence its collection chain will be refused by the offtaker's certification body.

Collection chain

  • Point of collection — restaurants, food manufacturing, or aggregated
  • Aggregator and consolidation stage
  • Self-declaration and chain-of-custody records
  • Whether the material has been previously processed or blended

Documentation a buyer may require

  • Certificate of analysis from an independent laboratory
  • Certificate of origin
  • Sustainability declaration under the scheme named by the offtaker
  • Chain-of-custody documentation covering each handling stage

Values shown are typical for the grades indicated and are confirmed against the specific parcel offered. Availability, format and grade combination vary by mandate.

Send us the specification

Grade, grammage or dimension, volume and destination are enough for us to come back with something workable.

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