Repsol accepts 1st UCO ship in Cartagena, opens 176 UCO-collection points in Galicia region of Spain

Photo: Repsol

Repsol announced in mid-December that the company has received its first ship of used cooking oil (UCO) at its industrial complex in Cartagena, Spain.

The ship arrived from Huelva in southern Spain and unloaded 7,500 tons of UCO.

Repsol is transforming its industrial complexes into multi-energy centers with the capacity to produce fuels with a low- or zero-carbon footprint.

Repsol began construction in 2022 at the site in Cartegena, where it will manufacture approximately 85 million gallons a year of renewable diesel, SAF, bionaphtha and biopropane from wastes and residues, including UCO.

Repsol will receive around 300,000 tons of waste per year at the Port of Cartagena, among which UCO will play a “very relevant role,” the company stated.

Also in December, Repsol launched 176 collection points for UCO at its service stations in the Galicia region in northwestern Spain.

In August, Repsol and the Xunta signed a general collaboration protocol for the development of the circular economy in Galicia.

Customers can take their used cooking oil to any of the 176 collection points available at Repsol service stations that currently offer this service in the Galicia region, which will soon be extended to 185 collection points.

For proper UCO management after collection, Repsol has contracted Mulleres Colleiteiras, a nonprofit cooperative from A Coruña formed by women in vulnerable situations.

This organization is certified under the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification EU scheme, which guarantees the traceability and sustainability of the waste.

The region of Galicia is the second in Spain in which Repsol has launched this initiative, after introducing UCO collection at 134 stations in Madrid earlier this year.

The company said its industrial complex in A Coruña has been producing biofuels for decades.

In October 2021, 500 tons of UCO was processed at the site for the first time to make renewable diesel.

In 2022, the industrial complex in A Coruña used more than 195,000 tons of biobased feedstock of different types to make biofuels, and this year it plans to increase the biobased feedstock used by 30 percent to 265,000 tons.

In addition, this summer a new infrastructure was put into operation at the complex in A Coruña, which allows the continuous reception of waste feedstock by means of tanker trucks, which until now could only be received by ship.