Clean Production of Biofuel from Waste Cooking Oil to Reduce Emissions, Fuel Cost, and Respiratory Disease Hospitalizations

José Carlos Curvelo Santana, Amanda Carvalho Miranda, Luane Souza, Charles Lincoln Kenji Yamamura, Diego de Freitas Coelho, Elias Basile Tambourgi, Fernando Tobal Berssaneti and Linda Lee Ho
Additional contact information
José Carlos Curvelo Santana: Department of Production Engineering, University of São Paulo, São Paulo 05508-010, SP, Brazil
Amanda Carvalho Miranda: Department of Production Engineering, University of São Paulo, São Paulo 05508-010, SP, Brazil
Luane Souza: Industrial Engineering Post Graduation Program, Federal University of ABC, São Bernardo do Campo, São Paulo 09606-045, SP, Brazil
Charles Lincoln Kenji Yamamura: Department of Production Engineering, University of São Paulo, São Paulo 05508-010, SP, Brazil
Diego de Freitas Coelho: School of Chemical Engineering, State University of Campinas, São Paulo 13083-970, SP, Brazil
Elias Basile Tambourgi: School of Chemical Engineering, State University of Campinas, São Paulo 13083-970, SP, Brazil
Fernando Tobal Berssaneti: Department of Production Engineering, University of São Paulo, São Paulo 05508-010, SP, Brazil
Linda Lee Ho: Department of Production Engineering, University of São Paulo, São Paulo 05508-010, SP, Brazil

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 16, 1-25

Abstract: Renewable energies are cleaner forms of energy, and their use, has intensified in recent decades. Thus, this work presents a proposal for reducing the emissions, fuel cost, and respiratory disease hospitalizations using environmental cost accounting principles to produce biodiesel production from waste frying oil. In our methodology, we conducted surveys, and collected waste cooking oil samples from local households and restaurants in São Paulo city, Brazil. Then, we produced biodiesel using these samples. Data on air pollutants were collected and correlated with the number of hospitalizations for respiratory diseases and their costs. Our results indicate that 330,000 respiratory disease hospitalizations were recorded in São Paulo city between 2009 and 2018, and the total cost for the Brazilian government reached US $117 million. Improving the city air quality by switching from fossil fuels to biodiesel could reduce the annual number of hospitalizations to 9880 and cost US $3.518 million, because the amount of pollutants emitted from burning fossil fuels was positively correlated with the number of respiratory disease hospitalizations and their costs. Moreover, the emission rates of particulate matter with particles less than 10 and 2.5 µm in diameter exceeded the World Health Organization limits throughout the study period. Using the survey data, we estimated that the average monthly quantity of waste cooking oil was 9794.6 m 3 , which could generate 9191.2 m 3 of biodiesel and produce 239,713 t CO 2 of carbon credits. Environmental cost accounting revealed that it would be possible to achieve an annual profit of approximately US $300 million from the sale of excess biodiesel, carbon credits, and glycerine, and fuel acquisition savings which could improve the image of São Paulo city and quality of life of its residents. Thus, we present this as a way to reduce cost and hospitalizations, and increase the number of available hospital beds for other diseases, such as COVID-19.

Keywords: environmental cost accounting; human health care; greenhouse gas emission; biodiesel; waste cooking oil; air pollution (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/16/9185/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/16/9185/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:16:p:9185-:d:615325

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().