Who buys animal fat and tallow in Europe

Animal fat is a long-established biodiesel feedstock and the volume going that way has grown substantially over the past decade. Neste names animal fat waste as one of its top three waste and residue categories globally, alongside used cooking oil and residues from vegetable oil processing.

Aviation has now entered the same queue. Almost all SAF produced in Europe today comes through the HEFA route, which takes exactly these lipids, and the trade press has written about category 3 fat being pulled between fuelling aircraft and feeding animals. That competition is the single most important commercial fact about this product right now.

Oleochemical manufacturers convert fats into fatty acids, glycerine, soaps and derivatives. KLK OLEO runs four companies and seven production sites in Europe; IOI Oleo is headquartered in Hamburg with production at Witten and Wittenberge. These buyers screen on specification and colour rather than on sustainability chain, and for them certification adds cost without adding use.

This is the outlet to remember when a parcel cannot be certified. It is not a fallback of last resort; for some material it is the better market.

Category 3 fat is a feed and pet food raw material, and that industry has been vocal about losing volume to fuel. Where two industries bid for the same material at different prices, misdeclaration follows: APAG, the European oleochemical industry association, has published on the distortion and the fraud risk around blending of category 3 fats.

For an honest seller this is worth knowing because it explains the questions you will get. A buyer asking hard questions about category and traceability is not doubting you personally; they are managing a known risk in their own supply chain.

• Category, with the paperwork behind it. This is the first question and there is no answering around it.
• Free fatty acid, and the trend of it rather than one number.
• Certification, if the material is going into fuel: which scheme, and whether the chain holds.
• Monthly tonnage and consistency. Rendering output is steady, which is an advantage worth stating explicitly.
• Storage and handling, since these are solid or semi-solid at ambient temperature and the logistics are part of the price.

Everything above is drawn from what companies have published about their own operations, from trade association material and from price reporting agencies. Capacity gets delayed, projects get cancelled and feedstock slates change with the spread, so treat this as a map of the landscape rather than a live position. Where a name appears, it is because that company has said publicly what it does, not because we have any relationship with them.

If something here is out of date or wrong, tell us and we will correct it. We would rather be corrected than repeat something that costs someone a week.