Tempura is popular these days, and if certain Japanese industrialists have their way, it could even upstage oil as the source of energy for cars.
In fact, a Japanese research team plans to create environmental awareness through the Paris-Dakar rally by entering a car that runs on biodiesel made from the cooking oil used to fry tempura.
Sound crazy? Consider Japan’s Tenya chain of restaurants that specialize in tendon-bowls of rice topped with pieces of tempura. Cooking oil used at the Tenya chain is finding new life as biodiesel fuel.
Well-oiled
Last year, 70 million tonnes of waste oil was collected from the 120 Tenya outlets by Revo International, a Kyoto environmental start-up.
Every day Revo collects nearly 20,000 tonnes of spent cooking oil from companies and households around Japan. Revo processes the oil and supplies the biodiesel to Kyoto municipal offices and five trucking firms.
The current price is ¥88/l., lower than the retail price of normal diesel. “We have a growing number of queries from carrying firms having hard times with soaring fuel costs,” said Revo Pres. Tetsuya Koshikawa.
So it’s no surprise that someone wants to heighten awareness of the potential here, and that’s what the Dakar rally will do.
“We want to show what tempura oil can achieve, as a way to raise environmental awareness,” said Hidefumi Onaka, a lecturer at the Osaka Sangyo University, which helped test the fuel and provided technical support.
“We’re not doing it just for fun, so we decided to enter an internationally acclaimed event and appeal to the world,” said Onaka.
Big ideas
The idea also fits in with a plan unveiled by Japan’s Environment Ministry, which aims to raise the ratio of biofuel to 10% of total automobile fuel consumption by 2030.
The ministry aims to produce the equivalent of 4 million kl. of automobile-use biofuel in cooperation with other government agencies, industry, and academia.
The aim is to produce 2.2 million kl. of bioethanol from sugarcane and construction waste and 1.8 million kl. of biodiesel from waste kitchen oil and other sources.
Meanwhile, for Dakar, Onaka said the team will need about 10,000 l. of tempura oil, which will be donated by students, the school cafeteria, as well as neighborhood restaurants. He said the oil will be reprocessed by Revo.
Driving the car will be former Formula-One racer Ukyo Katayama.
“The idea is to drive on biomass fuel, which is easier on the environment, over the desert that is severely affected by global warming,” said Katayama. “I want to be the first to complete the Dakar rally on nonfossil fuel.”
A small drawback, however, is odor of the burnt fuel.
“The smell isn’t as appetizing as tempura,” said Onaka. “After intensive fuel testing in my lab, I had heartburn and didn’t even want to look at tempura for a few days.”