Dubai announced Wednesday that it will be the first city in the world to begin using 100 percent locally produced biofuel made 100 percent from local waste - think falafel-flavored grease - in its municipal vehicles. This news comes with the signing of an agreement with Neutral Fuels LLC .
The director general of Dubai Municipality Hussain Lootah, who signed the agreement, stated: "Dubai will be one of the world’s most sustainable cities by 2020, when the city hosts the World Expo. Our biodiesel initiative is a huge leap towards achieving this. We are pleased to take this next step with Neutral Fuels as they share our vision and have provided a solution that meets the needs of our growing city."
Through his UAE Vision 2021 and Dubai Integrated Energy Strategy 2030, HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, vice president and prime minister of the UAE and ruler of Dubai, endeavors to create a fully sustainable city and promote fuel efficiency. Some of the key aspects of these endeavors include: rationing the use of energy and fuel, promoting discussions about converting waste to energy, and building sustainable transport infrastructure.
While the Gulf region's economy is tied to the petroleum industry in many minds, Dubai has diversified away from relying on gas and oil revenues - the sector made up less than 6 percent of its GDP in 2010. In the emirate's pursuit of a modern, tourism and service sector-based economy, it has also led the region in the drive for sustainability.
Essentially, biodiesel will be created by utilizing used cooking oil which would otherwise be discarded as waste by Dubai restaurants. Neutral Fuels, which has been producing Bio Diesel in the UAE since 2010, explains via their website that biodiesel is "produced by reacting used cooking oils with methanol in the presence of a sodium methylate catalyst."
Some of the proven benefits of biodiesel are that it reduces the carbon footprint by up to 80 percent, cuts poisonous carbon monoxide emissions in half, reduces smog, and also causes less wear on vehicles' engines.
Other greening initiatives by Dubai include the massive Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum solar park, which is planned to have an output of 1,000MW by 2030. By 2020, it is estimated that this new solar park will have prevented 250,000 tons of carbon dioxide from contaminating the atmosphere.