DUBAI: Turning used vegetable oil into energy? For McDonald's United Arab Emirates and Neutral Fuels LLC this is the plan. According to a joint statement by the two companies, the fast-food giant is aiming to use recycled vegetable oil to produce biodiesel for the country in an effort to boost alternative energy efforts. According to the companies, the process will involve the UAE's first plant licensed to make biodiesel, they announced at a news conference in Dubai. The plant will have an annual output of some one million liters, said Neutral Group Chairman Karl Feilder, the parent company of Dubai-based Neutral Fuels. “We are taking away the need to import diesel,” he said. Biodiesel from the factory in Dubai, the second-largest emirate in the UAE, “will supply a limited number of companies at first and won't be available for wider sale,” Feilder said. McDonald's UAE estimates it uses more than 20,000 liters of vegetable oil at 90 restaurants in the Gulf country, Managing Director Rafic Fakih said. The new project will now convert all its delivery trucks to biodiesel as part of the initiative. Fakih and Feilder declined to estimate the venture's cost or the savings they expected it to generate. The UAE is home to about 7 percent of the world's oil supply, and has invested heavily in clean-energy technology as it seeks to diversify its economy away from crude hydrocarbons. BM
