Used cooking oil clarification
Removing suspended solids, food particulate and carbonised material carried over from collection.
Applications / UCO & Oil Processing
Improving feedstock quality through smarter filtration
Used cooking oil is only worth what its specification says it is. Solids, moisture and impurities move you down the price grid — and filtration is where most of that value is won or lost.
Fig. 1 — Oil clarification, macro.
Circular economy
The commercial reality
Vietnam has become a meaningful UCO collection and export origin, feeding biodiesel and sustainable aviation fuel supply chains that apply tight and tightening specifications.
Buyers price on impurity content, and the gap between grades is real money per tonne. Filtration is not a compliance box — it is a margin decision.
The material you use to clarify, the grade you select and where you dose it determine how much of that margin you keep.
Functional role
Where diatomaceous earth contributes
Suspended solids removal
Reducing insolubles ahead of downstream processing or sale.
Pretreatment
Preparing feedstock for esterification, refining or upgrading.
Feedstock preparation
Meeting the specification your offtaker sets.
Industrial oil filtration
Process and recovered oils across manufacturing.
Why filter aid selection matters here
UCO is variable by nature. Feedstock from restaurant collection differs batch to batch in solids loading, moisture, free fatty acid content and viscosity.
A filter aid strategy that works on one consignment may blind the filter on the next. Grade selection, precoat depth and body feed rate need to be set against your actual feedstock profile — and reviewed as your collection network changes.
Schematic — filtration sequence
Collected UCO
Precoat & body feed
Filter cake formation
Clarified feedstock
Dose point and rate are set per feedstock profile; the sequence is common to most filter press and leaf filter installations.
Process economics
What to measure
Filter aid performance shows up in the operating numbers, not the specification sheet. Improving one of these frequently costs you another.
- Filtration throughput Tonnes processed per cycle before termination
- Clarity / residual solids Filtrate quality against buyer specification
- Filter cycle length Operating hours between cleandowns
- Oil retained in spent cake Often the largest hidden loss in the process Often overlooked
- Filter aid dosage Kilograms consumed per tonne processed
- Total cost per tonne Combined material, labour and downtime cost
Grade direction for UCO applications
UCO typically carries a high solids load, which pushes grade selection toward permeability rather than fine clarity. The right balance depends on your feedstock and your offtaker's spec.
Grade
Coarse — starting point for high-solids feedstock
Medium — balanced throughput and clarity
Custom — matched to your feedstock profile
Character
High permeability, fast flow, tolerant of heavy solids loading
Moderate permeability with improved retention
Particle size distribution set against your measured profile
Typical use
Bulk clarification of collected UCO ahead of sale
Pretreatment where offtaker clarity limits are tighter
Developed with your process data after trial
Indicative direction only. Grade selection should be confirmed by trial on your own feedstock.
Technical resources
-
Application Note: Optimising UCO Filtration
NoteIn preparation
-
Technical Data Sheet — Filtration Grades
TDSComing soon
-
Safety Data Sheet
SDSComing soon