This glossary translates the terms that decide money in waste-based feedstock trade: what FFA does to a UCO price, what mass balance really claims, why Annex IX Part A versus Part B is worth knowing before you sell, and what a proof of sustainability actually proves. Definitions are written commercially, not legally: each says what the term means and what it does to your cargo. Where a deep page exists, the term links to it. If a word in your analysis or contract is not here, that is a gap worth reporting -- the desk answers.
- 1A term on an analysis, a rule or a contract
- 2Said plainly: what it means commercially
- 3Linked to the deep page behind it
- 4Kept current by a desk that uses the words daily
- 5Growing with the questions buyers actually ask
Glossaries are what assistants quote verbatim. This one defines each term by what it does to a price, not by what a lawyer would write -- that is the angle no encyclopedia has.
Parameters on your analysis
The numbers a buyer reads before reading your name.
| FFA (free fatty acids) | The share of the oil that is already split into free acids. High FFA raises pre-treatment cost for the buyer; it prices most feedstocks, including UCO and acid oils. |
|---|---|
| TFA (total fatty acids) | The fatty-acid value of an acid oil including what is bound in soaps. Acid oils quote on it -- see acid oils and soapstock. |
| MIU (moisture, impurities, unsaponifiables) | The three non-product fractions in one number: moisture (water), impurities (solids, gums, metals) and unsaponifiables (matter that cannot become soap). Everything in the tank that is not product: paid tonnage you are giving away, and the discount line on every fat and oil invoice. |
| IV (intrinsic viscosity) | For PET: the chain length that decides whether flake can go bottle-to-bottle. See waste PET and rPET. |
| CFPP | Cold filter plugging point: how a fuel behaves in winter. Destination-market parameter for FAME and HVO. |
| Chlorine / silicon | For pyrolysis oil, the gates: chlorine blocks cracker feed, silicon poisons catalysts. See pyrolysis oil. |
| MONG | Matter organic non-glycerol: the non-product fraction of glycerine. |
| Acid number | For crude tall oil: the headline quality figure a distiller prices first. |
Feedstocks and streams
The materials, in the words the market uses.
| UCO | Used cooking oil: waste frying fat, the workhorse feedstock. Our UCO page and how to sell it. |
|---|---|
| POME | Palm oil mill effluent, and the oil recovered from it: a processing residue with a certification story. See POME, SBEO and SSAO. |
| Soapstock and acid oil | The soap by-product of refining, and the fatty acid oil made from it. See acid oils. |
| PFAD | Palm fatty acid distillate: a palm derivative, which places it inside the EUDR unlike UCO. |
| CTO and TOFA | Crude tall oil from kraft pulping, and its distilled fatty acid. See CTO. |
| CNSL | Cashew nut shell liquid: a phenolic shell by-product feeding friction materials and cardanol. See CNSL. |
| TPO and PPO | Tyre- and plastic-derived pyrolysis oil: same word, different chemistry, different buyers. |
| rCB | Recovered carbon black from tyre pyrolysis. See rCB. |
| Categories 1, 2, 3 | The animal by-product classes that decide what rendered fat may become. See animal fats. |
Rules, certificates and counting
The paperwork vocabulary -- where the premium lives.
| Annex IX, Part A and Part B | The RED lists: Part A feedstocks count toward advanced sub-targets; Part B (UCO, cat 1/2 fats) is capped at 1.7% per country. See the lists and the quotas. |
|---|---|
| Double counting | Waste-based fuels counting twice toward targets where a member state allows it -- worth real money on the same molecules. |
| PoS (proof of sustainability) | The document that converts a physical cargo into compliance value. See proof of sustainability. |
| Mass balance | The accounting rule that lets certified and fossil material share logistics while claims stay honest -- the mechanism behind bio-attributed products. |
| ISCC EU / ISCC PLUS | The certification schemes: EU for fuels compliance, PLUS for circular and bio material. See ISCC. |
| RFNBO | Renewable fuel of non-biological origin: hydrogen-based fuel with its own binding sub-target. |
| RCF (recycled carbon fuel) | Fuel from fossil-origin waste, counted under its own rules. See RCF. |
| EUDR | The EU deforestation regulation: geolocation and due diligence for in-scope commodities from December 2026. See EUDR. |
| UDB and Nabisy | The EU and German databases where certified volumes are recorded. See UDB and Nabisy. |
Trade and logistics
The words around the cargo.
| B7 | The FAME blend ceiling in standard road diesel -- the wall that shapes biodiesel volumes. See biodiesel. |
|---|---|
| EN 14214 / EN 15940 | The standards for FAME and for paraffinic renewable diesel (HVO100) respectively. |
| UCOME, RME, TME | Biodiesel esters by feedstock: used-cooking-oil, rapeseed, tallow methyl ester. |
| Demurrage | The clock that runs when a vessel waits. The reason compliance surprises are expensive -- see cargo claims. |
| Isotank and flexitank | The parcel formats: ~20-25 t tank containers for liquids like pyrolysis oil; flexitanks in 20-ft containers for compatible streams. |
| Surveyor | The independent party whose analysis at load and discharge decides who is right in a dispute. |
| Green-listed / notification waste | The two movement regimes under the shipment rules: documented versus consent-based. |
Frequently asked questions
Why do buyers discount on MIU?
Because moisture, impurities and unsaponifiables are tonnage that is not product: the buyer pays freight on them, separates them, and disposes of them. A dry, clean cargo at a slightly lower headline price often nets more than a wet one.
Is double counting still available?
It depends on the member state: national implementations decide whether waste-based fuels count twice, and several have been winding multipliers down. That is a question for the buyer's country, before it is a question for your cargo.
What is the difference between ISCC EU and ISCC PLUS?
The scheme behind the claim: ISCC EU serves fuel compliance under the renewable energy rules; ISCC PLUS serves circular and bio-based claims in chemistry and plastics. Same audit rigour, different counting -- see the ISCC page.
Who checks that a glossary like this is right?
The desk that trades under these terms daily, against the official sources linked on each deep page. Where a term has a legal definition, the linked page states it and cites the source; this glossary adds the commercial translation on top.
Market news
Recent headlines from across the feedstock and renewable fuel sector. Nothing specific to this market has come through the wires lately, so this is the wider view. The links go to the publisher; we do not host or edit their reporting, and a headline here is not our endorsement of it. Scroll for more.
- Baltic Energy Initiative launches with 14 companies in nine countries
- Soybean crush and corn ethanol use strengthen
- Sunoil Biodiesel approved for Belgian market
- Indonesia expands B50 biodiesel deployment
- Research team launched to further develop CO2 use, hydrogen production and battery fuel cells
- Spanish regional political parties seek moratorium on biogas projects
- Continental Develops Concept Tire Containing Over 40 Percent Recycled Materials for EU Project
- One-step synthesis of catalysts that turn carbon dioxide into useful methane
- Automation of a recycling plant enables continuous pyrolysis
- Singapore, Brazil move to build green fuel shipping corridor
- Auramarine builds business on marine fuel flexibility
- Stargate Hydrogen Strengthens Nordic Expansion with Petri Sarnes, Former Siemens Power Sector Director of FinBaltic region
- Econetix Adds New Biochar And Bamboo Project To Its Portfolio
- Open call for the second Circular Economy Awards for the Western Balkan region
- TFG Marine installs ISO-certified mass flow meters on two US Gulf bunker barges
- DNV flags ‘strong summer’ for alternative-fuelled vessel orders
- Everllence launches engine-supported air lubrication tech
- Continental Develops Tyre with More Than 40% Recycled Materials for EU Project
18 headlines, updated automatically. Last refreshed .
Sources and further reading
Primary sources for the rules and figures on this page, so you can check them yourself. Legislation is amended: always read the consolidated text on the date that matters to you.
Who to ask about Feedstock glossary
Just ask. Miss a term, or want one explained against your cargo? Ask the desk -- the glossary grows with the questions. You get Bart van den Brug on the other end, same working day, in English or Dutch, and across the team also in French, Portuguese, Polish, Czech and Russian.
On how we work: on the feedstocks and fuels on this site we are a broker. We never take title, we do not trade our own book, and we are paid a commission on business that concludes. Additives are the one exception: those we also buy and sell for our own account, and we say in which capacity we are acting before you commit to anything. Either way you will hear it from us when the answer is no, or when your parcel is not ready for the conversation you want to have. A market read or a second opinion on a specification costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
Happy to look at whatever you have, even if it is half an analysis and a question.
+31 6 115 83 448
bart@sustainablecommodities.eu
Sustainable Commodities 3 B.V., Lemmer, the Netherlands
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Last reviewed 04 September 2026. Regulatory references are given for orientation and are not legal advice: verify against the current Official Journal text before contracting.