Hungary Anticipates Bumper Year for Biodiesel

Gyorgy Deak, CEO of Biofilter, says that the booming Hungarian tourism sector is pointing to an anticipated 10% rise in the amount of used cooking oil his company collects to manufacture biodiesel. He says that around 5000 tonnes of used cooking oil will be collected this year.

He ascribes the growth to the increase of summer visitors to hotels, restaurants and cafes. In one of Hungary’s main tourist areas, around Lake Balaton, almost three times more used cooking oil was collected over the summer than during the same period last year.

In addition to the used cooking oil collected in Hungary, Biofilter also imports about 2000 - 3000 tonnes of oil from Greece, Croatia and Romania. It converts the oil to biodiesel base material at its state-of-the-art factory in Csévharaszt.

Producing biodiesel from used cooking oil is becoming more popular as the increased use of biodiesel has driven up the prices of the conventional oils and fats used for its production.