Airplanes will fly with cooking oil, this government company did this feat..

Cooking oil is often thrown away after frying at home or in restaurants. A refinery of state-owned Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has now received certification to make sustainable aviation fuel from the same oil. SAF is an alternative fuel made from non-petroleum feedstock that reduces pollution from air transport. Depending on availability, it can be blended up to 50 per cent in conventional aviation turbine fuel (ATF or jet fuel). India has made it mandatory to blend one per cent SAF in jet fuel sold to international airlines from 2027. Certification received from here

Company Chairman Arvinder Singh Sahni said that IOC's refinery in Panipat, Haryana, has received the International Civil Aviation Organization's (ICAO) ISCC CORSIA certification (International Sustainability and Carbon Certification - ISCC - developed under the Carbon Reduction Plan for International Aviation (CORSIA)) to produce SAF from used cooking oil. He said that Indian Oil is the first company in the country to receive this certification. Sahni said that from the end of the current calendar year, this refinery will start producing about 35,000 tonnes of SAF annually. He said that this production will be sufficient to meet the mandatory one percent blending requirement for the country in 2027.

This is how the production will be done.

Explaining the process, he said that agencies will collect used cooking oil from large users such as hotel chains, restaurants, snacks, and sweets-making companies like Haldiram, and supply it to the Panipat refinery. This oil will be used to produce SAF at the Panipat refinery. Large hotel and restaurant chains usually throw away cooking oil after using it once. Currently, this used cooking oil is collected by agencies and exported. Sahni said that such oil is available in large quantities in the country. The only challenge is to collect it. Although it is easy to collect it from large hotel chains, solutions need to be found to mobilize it from small users, including households.

Butyl acrylate plant set up in Gujarat.

Along with this, the company has also set up a plant worth Rs 5,000 crore to produce butyl acrylate (BA) at its Koyali refinery in Gujarat, which is used in making paints. This butyl acrylate plant with an annual capacity of 1.5 lakh tonnes will help eliminate the 3,20,000 tonnes of annual paint feedstock currently imported into the country. This is the second largest plant of its kind in India after Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited's (BPCL) unit at Kochi Refinery.

Work on renewable energy sources

Public sector Indian Oil Corporation has been at the forefront of innovation, especially in the areas of green energy, sustainable solutions, and technological advancements. The company is working on renewable energy sources such as 2G ethanol, fuel cells, bio-diesel, and energy storage sources. He said that the paint industry is growing at the rate of 13-14 percent annually. This industry imports a large part of the raw materials it uses. In July, we commissioned the BA unit at Koyali Refinery, which will eliminate the need for imports and save foreign currency for the country. Sahni said that along with the Kochi plant, this new unit can become an alternative to 80-90 percent of imports.

Tender for green hydrogen

Regarding green hydrogen, Sahni said the company has given a tender to L&T for the country's largest green hydrogen plant. He said the 10,000 tonnes per annum capacity green hydrogen unit at the Panipat refinery will be ready in 27 months. Green hydrogen, produced by splitting water using renewable energy, is a clean energy source that emits only water vapor and leaves no residue in the air like coal and oil. It can be used as fuel in industries and vehicles.

Relatively cheap renewable energy (electricity produced from sunlight and wind power) is available in India, which has helped keep the green hydrogen production cost below US$4 per kg. He further said Indian Oil will use this fuel at its Panipat refinery. Currently, refineries use grey hydrogen (hydrogen produced from fossil fuels) to produce fuses such as petrol and jet fuel in hydrocracking units.

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