Thematic areas: Waste management, environmental protection, innovation, energy efficiency
Country: Egypt
An estimate of 500,000 tons of cooking oil waste is produced annually in Egypt from various sources. This waste that is produced by food factories, restaurants, and hotels is not managed efficiently by these entities to be reused to their benefit. Conventionally, it is sold to waste collectors, who normally filter it and sell it back into the food industry, to soap companies, or export it to be used in the Biofuels industry abroad. Around 90 percent of households drop their used cooking oil in the drain. The draining systems of the houses get contaminated and the polluted water cannot be treated to use again.
Tagaddod (Arabic for ‘renewal’), a renewable Energy and Waste Management start-up established in 2013, introduced a new idea of turning used cooking oil to Biodiesel (a green fuel that is used in conventional diesel engines, which can directly substitute for or extend supplies of traditional petroleum diesel). It is a process of filtering the oil and adding chemical additives until getting the final product, which is biodiesel. The conversion process takes around three hours and produces two products, which are biodiesel and glycerin.
In December 2014, the team started engineering, procurement, and construction of the current production facility and was able successfully complete its first Biodiesel and Glycerol order in April 2015. In October 2015, Tagaddod’s production facility was granted the International Sustainability and Carbon Certificate (ISCC).
The current production line was designed, manufactured, and assembled, locally by Tagaddod’s engineers and experts, and is capable of producing up to 300 tons per month from any type of waste vegetable oil, and it can be modified to receive any grade of feedstock quality.
Biodiesel from the Tagaddod production facility is sold in the market. Travco Group, one of the leading tourism firms in Egypt uses Tagaddod’s biodiesel in its hotels’ vehicles, machinery and generators.
Tagaddod aspires to be the leading supplier of green energy, made from renewable resources – the wind, the sun, natural underground heat and clean fuels – to all businesses and households. Tagaddod’s current and medium term focus are exporting biodiesel to the European market. By 2020, the company aims to produce 5,000 tons per month, and operate another Green Diesel factory with the same capacity.
Prizes: Tagaddod has received an award from the Egyptian government’s General Authority for Investment (GAFI), for the company most likely to go international and has successfully completed a seed round led by Flat6Labs and has also received angel investment by Cairo Angels.
Partners: Sawari Ventures, Cairo Angels
Website: https://www.tagaddod.com/