Hebei Jingu successfully explores a new way of waste resource utilization -

Finding a good place for gutter oil

Lei Hanfa, Economic Daily - China Economic Net

Hebei Jingu believes that gutter oil is just a substance that does not have moral properties of its own, but only the way people use it is wrong. To solve the problem of gutter oil, we need to combine the efforts of prevention and control. On the one hand, strict investigation and blocking should not be relaxed; on the other hand, effective measures should be taken to strengthen the research on the resource utilization of gutter oil and develop it into valuable industrial supplies. This is not only more in line with the development direction of resource conservation and use, but also reduces the pressure to prevent it from flowing back to the table.

In June, a heat wave rolls across the land of southern Ji'nan. At midday, the streets are sparsely populated, and the only shadows on the ground are the dappled shadows left between the leaves of the trees. But a large courtyard in Xinji City, Hebei Province, is still full of people, and many large trucks are waiting to load and unload goods.

This is the production base of Hebei Jingu Oil Technology Co Ltd, the leading manufacturer of gutter oil recycling in China. Zhao Weisai, purchasing manager of the enterprise, told reporters that Jingu has found a way to resource utilization of gutter oil, and the gutter oil from more than 10 provinces and cities across the country "flows" into Jingu, after heating, purification, decolorization and deep chemical reaction into bio-environmental new energy and new materials.

 "Jingu is further expanding its production capacity, and has now built a production line with an annual processing capacity of nearly 150,000 tonnes, capable of converting 135,000 tonnes of high-quality biodiesel and new products such as non-toxic and non-hazardous plasticizers." Zhao Huichuan, chairman of the company, told the Economic Daily that the company's main product, biodiesel, is not only selling well in China, but has also passed the EU quality certification and has been exported in bulk to Germany, Spain, the UK, Switzerland and other countries and regions.

"Thousands of days to prevent thieves" how to do

"In fact, gutter oil is just a substance that does not have moral properties of its own, it's only the way people use it that goes wrong and is labelled as a violation of moral standards." Zhao Huichuan said.

Statistics show that China "produces" more than 3 million tonnes of gutter oil each year, much of which goes back into the food and feed industries, causing serious social problems. In response, the relevant authorities have introduced tough measures to put an end to this phenomenon.

Zhao Huichuan admits that if the interest chain of gutter oil back to the table cannot be effectively cut, the problem will be difficult to solve. "As the old saying goes, there are only a thousand days to be a thief, not a thousand days to prevent a thief, to solve the problem of gutter oil need to combine unblocking. On the one hand, strict investigation and blocking should not be relaxed; on the other hand, effective measures should be taken to strengthen the research on the resource utilization of gutter oil and develop it into valuable industrial supplies. This will not only be more in line with the development direction of resource conservation and use, but will also give the gutter oil a good place to go, thus reducing the pressure to prevent it from flowing back to the table."

Based on this understanding, Zhao Huichuan and his partners set up Hebei Jingu Oil and Fat Technology Co Ltd in 2005. They cooperated with Tsinghua University, Sichuan University, Hebei University of Science and Technology and Jiangnan University, and invested more than 20 million yuan to start a biodiesel production project with gutter oil as the main raw material; in 2008, they invested more than 24 million yuan to build a production plant with an annual output of 30,000 tons of epoxy fatty acid methyl ester; in 2010, they invested more than 30 million yuan to prepare for a 30,000-ton waste lubricant recycling project; In 2016, we invested 50 million yuan to launch a 150,000-ton biodiesel expansion project. Through this series of initiatives, Jingu's ability to "digest" gutter oil has been greatly enhanced, with a daily production capacity of 500 tonnes of related finished products.

Calculating "inside and outside the embankment" two accounts

Zhao Minzhong, deputy general manager of Hebei Jingu, told reporters that in the 12 years since the company was founded, Jingu has faced the plight of shutting down production many times, but has survived.

Zhao Minzhong said that one of the bigger crises happened in 2006. At that time, Jingu was expanding its production capacity at full steam when it suddenly encountered the inverse price of biodiesel raw materials and finished products. "When the biodiesel was first produced, the raw materials (oil soap horn, acidified oil, gutter oil) were about 1,700 yuan per tonne, and the enterprise had a profit of more than 1,000 yuan per tonne of finished product produced. But with the rise of biodiesel industry in the country, the price of raw materials skyrocketed to more than 5,000 yuan/ton, and enterprises had to lose 1,500 yuan to 1,800 yuan for each ton of biodiesel produced. During that time, many domestic biodiesel manufacturers have closed down."

In the face of such difficulties, Jingu people did not retreat. They came up with the idea of developing a long vine and a main and multiple side. In other words, it is to find benefits from product innovation and internal tapping by all means, so as to make up for the losses inside the embankment.

In the process of finding the direction, Jingu found that the biodiesel production line has the basic conditions for producing chemical products, and it can directly produce other chemical products after its transformation and upgrading. So, Jingu boldly transformed and grafted on the production equipment and production process, and finally broke out a new way to produce epoxy fatty acid methyl ester from gutter oil.

Epoxy fatty acid methyl ester is a new type of plasticiser, which is environmentally friendly, non-toxic, anti-ageing, transparent and has excellent thermal stability. The product uses 95% of gutter oil as raw material and has the characteristics of resourcefulness and harmlessness through deep processing. Moreover, each tonne of epoxy fatty acid methyl ester sells for around RMB8,400 to RMB8,900, which means that for every tonne of the product produced, the company can make a profit of RMB200 to RMB300.

There are many other examples of similar innovations in Jingu. With the development of fatty acid methyl ester, epoxidised soybean oil, trichlorotoluene, benzoyl chloride and other series of products, Jingu's product matrix has been enriched and the company has been selected by the China Materials Recycling Association as the vice-chairman of the fifth council, and by the National Biodiesel Industry Collaborative Group as the vice-chairman of the unit, and has been awarded the title of waste mineral oil recycling demonstration base.

Let the cycle chain "turn" up

Faced with the achievements already made, Jingu did not stop there. Now, they are further planning new projects in the circular economy.

Not long ago, Jingu invested 100 million yuan in a new project to start construction, the project can handle 60,000 tons of waste engine oil per year, and produce standard base oil; another investment of 60 million yuan to kitchen waste, household waste and agricultural straw as raw materials to produce industrial biogas and agricultural organic fertilizer project has also completed the project and entered the construction preparation stage.

Zhao Huichuan told reporters that these two new projects have very broad market prospects. In terms of the former, China's machinery use is huge, with up to 5 million tonnes of waste oil produced each year by two industries: transport and industrial machinery. Due to the difficulty of handling it, many places have to choose to dump it directly or burn it as fuel, which not only wastes resources but also causes pollution. "Now, we can process the collected used engine oil into higher base oils and premium lubricants through our patented technology with independent intellectual property rights, solving the problem for industrial and mining enterprises and vehicle maintenance departments."

The other project has a wider range of raw materials for production, as wherever there are people living there is kitchen waste and household waste, and wherever there is agricultural production there will be crop straw. "We use it near and in situ biogasification to provide clean fuel for business production and pollution-free organic fertiliser for agricultural production, so we can kill two birds with one stone." Zhao Huichuan said.

Zhao Huichuan admits that although the current development of Jingu is going well, it also needs policy support. For example, for the treatment of gutter oil, although the Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on Strengthening Gutter Oil Remediation and Kitchen Waste Management has been promulgated for many years, the proportion of gutter oil recovered nationwide is less than 60 per cent, and less than 40 per cent has a reasonable way of use. For the sake of the survival of enterprises, and for the sake of green water and green mountains, Zhao Huichuan suggested that the relevant departments could further refine and implement the requirements of the Opinions, crack down on the illegal production and sale of gutter oil, eradicate the black system of gutter oil production and sale, and implement a qualification access system for gutter oil treatment enterprises.