UCO from Spanish PepsiCo snack plant made into renewable diesel for trucks hauling company goods

PepsiCo announced in May that it has launched a pilot project through which it will reuse the oil generated at its snack plant in Burgos, Spain, for conversion into hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO).

The project will make use of more than 10,567 gallons of used cooking oil (UCO) for conversion into renewable diesel.

The hydrotreated biofuel generated will go directly to the fleet of company collaborators to transport PepsiCo products.

The company estimates that savings of 380 tons of CO2 per year will be achieved on these journeys.

This type of fuel can reduce CO2 by up to 90 percent but, as PepsiCo stated, its availability is still low.

“For this reason, the company, whose primary, secondary and fleet transport accounts for 11 percent of its emissions in Spain, Italy and Portugal, is committed to promoting this type of initiative and extending its use to eliminate the use of diesel in its fleet in the medium term,” PepsiCo stated.

Javier Pérez Martínez, head of sustainable transport for PepsiCo Europe, said, “These are pilot tests that we hope will provide us with very positive results and can be definitively implemented. We want and must be part of the solution and, with initiatives like these, we contribute our grain of sand in the reduction of greenhouse gases …”

PepsiCo said the company is committed to reducing greenhouse-gas emissions by more than 40 percent by 2030 and reaching net-zero emissions by 2040, a decade ahead of the Paris Agreement.

Specifically, it plans to reduce the emissions of its direct operations by 75 percent and its indirect operations by 40 percent by 2030, taking 2015 as a reference year.