Yellow grease

Not to be confused with yellow grease (tallow).
A bin for spent cooking oil in Austin, Texas, United States, managed by a recycling company.

Yellow grease, also termed used cooking oil (UCO), used vegetable oil (UVO), recycled vegetable oil, or waste vegetable oil (WVO), is recovered from businesses and industry that use the oil for cooking.

It is used to feed livestock, and to manufacture soap, make-up, clothes, rubber, and detergents.[1] Due to competition from these other industrial sectors, the EIA estimates that less than a third of yellow grease could be spared for biodiesel production annually.[2]

It is distinct from brown grease; yellow grease is typically used frying oils from deep fryers, whereas brown grease is sourced from grease interceptors.[3]

  1. ^ Murphy, Denis J. Plant Lipids: Biology, Utilization, and Manipulation. Wiley-Blackwell, 2005, p. 117.
  2. ^ Radich, Anthony (January 2004). "Biodiesel Performance, Costs, and Use" (PDF). Energy Information Administration. Archived (PDF) from the original on December 13, 2016. Retrieved June 22, 2012.
  3. ^ Tyson, K. Shaine (June 19, 2002). "Brown Grease Feedstocks for Biodiesel" (PDF). National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 23, 2009. Retrieved January 31, 2009.