Scientists in Mexico want to build a biodiesel plant that would provide fuel for Mexico City’s public transit. This story in the Latin American Herald Tribune says the the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) plan is to use waste cooking oil from restaurants and hotels and could supply more than 500 gallons a day.
A School of Engineering lab will be responsible for sourcing and quality control for the first project of this type in Mexico, postgraduate researcher Alejandra Castro Gonzalez said.
The quality of the source oil and the biodiesel must be high to ensure the smooth operation of vehicles using it as fuel and avoid damaging engines, Castro said.
Use of biodiesel will help reduce emissions of pollutants, as well as recycling a product that is now often discarded, the researcher said.
“Some (establishments in Ciudad Universitaria) discard about 70 percent and others just 20 percent (of cooking oils), so we can deduce that there are shops that cook more healthy than others,” Castro said.
The project is getting funding from the Conacyt Mixed Fund and the Federal District’s government.