Philippine News
Davao City’s biodiesel plant sustains operation
DAVAO CITY – The Biodiesel Fuel Plant continues to provide 1,000 liters of fuel daily since its launching last August. The plant’s operation is still under pilot test providing fuel for the city’s garbage trucks and 30 public utility vehicles.
“The capacity of the processing plant is only good for 1,000 L per day so we stick to that amount of used cooking oil for our daily collection,” CENRO supervising environmental management specialist Dolly Remojo said.
Remojo said if there is a second shift for the processing of the biodiesel fuel then they could collect more used cooking oil.
However, this would put too much strain on the machine. The city government launched the biodiesel plant in August this year with a 1000L processing capacity.
Unless there is additional equipment at the plant, then that’s the maximum processing capacity for now.
“Of the 1,000 liters of used cooking oil processed, the output is 90 percent while the remaining 10 percent is considered wastage but is still mixed with compost,” Remojo said.
The city collects the used cooking oil from 45 establishments in the city, most of them fast food chains. Only four barangays have participated in the project including Sasa, Mintal, and Hizon.
While the project was launched in Barangay Crossing Matina, the collection in the said barangay has not been pursued due to the lack of donations from the area.
The processed biodiesel fuel is used to fuel six of CENRO’s garbage trucks and vehicles plus the Mighty Might which was described as a small backhoe.
The plant is located at the City Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO) composting facility in Maa and is still limited to processing 1,000 liters of fuel per day due to machine capacity.
