Who buys used cooking oil in Europe

FAME plants take UCO to produce UCOME, and they remain the deepest outlet by number of buyers even as the hydrotreating capacity grows. Greenergy describes itself as a leading European manufacturer of biodiesel from waste and states that it sources used cooking oil globally. Argent Energy in the UK runs an integrated model, collecting UCO and producing biodiesel from it. Münzer Bioindustrie in Austria is another long-established name in this part of the market.

Biodiesel buyers are generally more tolerant of variable quality than a hydrotreater, because esterification handles free fatty acid differently. That tolerance is worth understanding: a parcel that a refiner turns down on FFA can be perfectly placeable with a FAME producer.

A group of companies both collect UCO from kitchens and process it, which makes them a buyer for volume they cannot gather themselves and a competitor for the volume they can. Olleco in the UK is the largest, and market reporting puts its processed volume in the region of 1.9 million tonnes in 2023; it now operates a joint venture with Bunge serving food service and food manufacturing customers across Europe. Saria's group companies gather and process across several countries.

For a collector in an origin country these are often the most realistic first counterparty, because they understand aggregated supply and are less likely to demand a full refinery specification on a first parcel.

Not every buyer needs a sustainability chain. Oleochemical and technical users buy on specification, and for them certification adds cost without adding use. This is the route for material that cannot be certified, or where the chain has a gap that cannot be closed retrospectively.

It is worth knowing this exists before you conclude that an uncertified parcel is stranded. It is not; it is simply in a different market.

The mistake we see most often is a first email that leads with volume and price and nothing else. Every buyer in every one of these groups will ask the same questions, so answer them first:

• Certification, in full. Which scheme, whether you are in the chain of custody yourself, and whether the declaration will carry the right Annex IX category. See Proof of Sustainability.
• A recent analysis, with the methods named. Free fatty acid, moisture and impurities, and the sampling basis behind them.
• Volume per month, and for how long. A refiner is sizing a relationship, not buying a parcel. One cargo with no follow-up is a different conversation.
• Origin and the route it takes. Buyers care where it comes from, and increasingly they have to.
• How long you can hold a quote. This one is almost never volunteered and it decides whether the buyer can act on it at all.

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.