Mafuta Sasa goes into biodiesel production

The first and only certified biodiesel producer in Tanzania, the firm participates in improving the world’s climate change through collecting waste vegetable oil from hotels and restaurants, street vendors and households through micro finance institutions and then refining it at the factory.

Stefano Grasso, spokesperson of the firm told The EastAfrican in Dar es Salaam last week that the oil can also be sold on the second oil market for food processing purposes with highly negative consequences on the health of the final consumers.

Mr Grasso said that the oil would otherwise be dumped into the sink with negative polluting effect whereby one litre of this waste oil can pollute up to one square kilometer if dumped in the ocean.

Biodiesel produces 75 per cent less emission and less soot comparing to other fossil fuels giving it the chance to protect the environment.

It also gives our customers to enjoy the benefit of lubricating their engines since it has much more oil. Even when other fuels are blended with biodiesel by one per cent still the engine will be lubricated by 60 per cent.

To reduce the amount of waste products by the firm, as a way towards preserving the environment, the firm is planning to start producing premium soaps and glycerin from the heated oil that it’s by products are glycerin and biodiesel.

The project has come in the wake of the proposed programme for reducing emissions from deforestation which is considered among the more promising ways to reduce atmospheric carbon.

The programme will allow heavily polluting nations to offset their emissions by paying developing tropical countries to store carbon in forests; a step towards the global climatic change.

According to Mr. Grasso the firm is currently collecting waste vegetable oil from sixty hotels based in Dar es Salaam only. The stock enables them to produce 10,000 litters of biodiesel per week.

The firm said it will increase its production to up to 15,000 litres per week if the firm gets sufficient waste vegetable oil.

According to the firm, it is envisaged a small plan that will see the firm collecting vegetable oil wastes from Zanzibar and Arusha, United States of America and United Kingdom which will enable the firm to accelerate its production.

So far Mafuta Sasa Ltd is the only company producing biodiesel in the East African region.

Other companies that engaged themselves in the business stopped due to global financial crisis leaving behind few Jatropha projects in the region.