The government of the City of Kyoto has started collecting wasted edible oil from households and restaurant and converting it into methyl ester for biodiesel application, mostly in garbage trucks and buses of the city government. In the project, the 220 garbage trucks and 81 city buses are running on B100 and B20 respectively.

Amount of biodisel fuel being used in the City of Kyoto alone is about 1,500 kL per year, whilst total amount of biodiesel fuel used in Japan per year is estimated to be about 3,000 kL (v/s about 46 million kL of diesel fuel consumed). If all the edible-oil wastes are recycled for Biodiesel application, a market of about 30 million yens could possibly be created, given the following facts: -

• About 2,000,000 tonnes of edible oil consumed in Japan per annum.
• About 450,000 tonnes of waste edible oil is discarded from factories and as household garbage.
• About 200,000 tonnes out of it is collected and utilised as materials for soap and animal feed.

However, in response to the Kyoto Protocol to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and increasind demand for biodiesel, the Japanese market has started to look into options for other feedstock, such as palm oil, soya oil and etc.