Shanghai plans to turn recycled cooking oil, some of it seized by authorities, into an environmental asset by converting it into fuel for vehicles, state media said on Monday.
The Shanghai government plans to cooperate with a local university and six companies to produce biodiesel from used oil to power the city’s buses, taxis and trucks, the China Daily newspaper reported.
Tongji University, has been experimenting for the last three years to create the ideal mix, the report said, but did not detail the scale of the plan.
In 2011 China arrested 32 people over the sale of “gutter oil”, which is thought to contain carcinogens and other pollutants.
Shanghai has also cracked down, in March implementing rules on proper disposal of waste oil and qualifications for collectors.
“On the one hand, we emphasised cleaning up illegal oil collectors. On the other, we looked for ideal ways to use the recycled oil,” Yan Zuqiang of the Shanghai Food Safety Committee was quoted by the China Daily as saying.