In the period analysed between January and October 2020 in the latest update of the biofuel statistics produced by the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) the main raw material consumed in Spain to produce biodiesel have been used cooking oils.
One of the highlights reveals that in this period China became the main exporter of raw material for biodiesel consumed in Spain, ahead of Indonesia, Argentina, Malaysia and Brasil.
While the South-East Asian countries export palmoils and the South Americans export soybean oils, China exports used cooking oil as raw material.
In Spain, the market depends mainly on oil from the Horeca channel: hotels, restaurants and coffee shops and the limitations and closures that affected restaurants and hotels due to the pandemic supposed a significant drop in the generation of used cooking oils in Spain forcing to look for supplies in other countries.
On the other hand, the fact that raw materials from waste count twice, when it comes to meeting the mandatory objective of incorporating biofuels in diesel and gasoline, has made used oils approach virgin soy, palm or rapeseed oils levels for the first time. In fact, used oils climbed up to first place with 36.3 percent of all raw material used to produce biodiesel.
