The Tenerife refinery recently started producing biodiesel at the plant by processing vegetable oil previously used for frying food, as part of an innovative project that allows this process to take place in the plant's conventional units.

The company has been authorised to collect and store used vegetable oils from homes, catering companies, schools, other groups on all seven islands. This is then taken to the refinery, which buys the waste at market prices.

Used vegetable oils are processed in the Refinery's conventional gas-oil hydrodesulphurization unit, where they are transformed into biodiesel, a fuel for use in motor vehicles with excellent environmental qualities.
To enable this process to take place, the Refinery has adapted the gas-oil desulphurization process so that used oil can be processed simultaneously with gas-oil originating from crude oil distillation. A logistical infrastructure has also been prepared for discharge, storage and subsequent processing of this product.

According to Salvador García, the manager of the Refinery, "With this project, CEPSA is helping to wipe out or at least significantly cut the high environmental cost of transporting these waste products away from the Canary Islands for processing".

"This initiative, which involves high levels of innovation, enables what is a highly contaminating waste product for sewage plants in the Canaries, frying oil, to be transformed into a fuel for use in motor vehicles, which is also a biofuel", said the manager.

Mr García explained that "initiatives like this one, carried out with technical collaboration from the Chemical Engineering Department at the University of La Laguna, combine innovation and environmental improvements, proving the Company's commitment to conserving the areas around its production plants and caring for the environment".

At the moment, the "Tenerife" refinery is managing around 100 tons/month of this waste matter, 400 tons of which is currently being collected in the islands. CEPSA intends this industrial plant to collect all used vegetable oil from the seven islands in the short term, to ensure that not a drop needs to be taken elsewhere for processing.

This project is one of the company's initiatives to produce biofuels using different types of vegetable oils. Managed by the CEPSA Research Centre, in 2007 the first tests with oil previously used for frying took place at the "Tenerife" refinery in 2007. In the meantime, hydrobiodiesel production from vegetable oils began at the "La Rábida" refinery in Huelva in 2011.

See the Tenerife refinery site