Regeneration technology of used frying oil has been developed using hydrophobic nonporous denser membrane. A percentage improvement of total polar materials was 52-61% by the membrane process. The membrane process was found to be effective for improving the overall quality of used frying oil compared to the conventional adsorption process using magnesium oxide or activated clay. By combining membrane and adsorption processes, it was effective in reducing FFA and oxidation products, that is, the quality of used frying oil could be improved to the level of fresh oil. By characterizing the liquid separation mechanism of the membrane, we indicate that the membrane process could be applied not only to the regeneration of used frying oil but also to the separation for various oil and fat industry.

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In food manufacturing companies frying oil is heated for extended hours for production of the deep-fried foods so that properties of the oil itself and of oil contained in the foods are often inferior to those in home deep-frying. This paper describes the mechanism of browning in frying oil, effects of deteriorated oil on health, a method for reclaiming as industrial oil, the oil recovered from food manufacturing companies after use, and possibility of antioxidation during frying, then proposed to shorten the heating time for one batch of frying oil at food manufacturing companies from the viewpoint of food chain and environmental preservation.

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For construction of an efficient fats and oils-containing wastewater treatment, the specific microorganisms that can degrade fats and oils efficiently have been isolated and investigated. This review describes the recent studies of state and problem about microbial treatment of fats and oils-containing wastewater; the developments of the harmless fats and oils-degrading microorganism, the highspeed fats and oils-degrading microorganism, the high concentration fats and oils-degrading microorganism, the efficient combination for fats and oils-degrading microorganisms, and fats and oils-degrading microorganisms using a new evaluation method of fats and oils-degradation. In addition, monitoring microorganism number and specific microorganism using recent new techniques (DGGE and environmental DNA analytical methods) are also described.

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Bioremediation is one of the effective way to cleanup of soil and water hazardous pollutants because of less expensive and in situ implementation technology. Among many kinds of environmental pollutants, petroleum hydrocarbons such as gasoline, aviation fuels, diesel fuel and heating oil are generally used as a sole source of carbon and energy by microorganisms. Therefore, it is possible that petroleum is mineralized completely to CO₂ and H₂O by bioremediation, and there are many published studies which deal with petroleum-degrading bacteria. Until recently, we had limited knowledge about which microorganisms are the most important petroleum degraders in the environment due to the lack of suitable analytical method for nonculturable bacteria. Our understanding of bacterial-community dynamics during bioremediation is still in its infancy. This review deals with our growing understanding of the bacteria that are responsible for hydrocarbon removal in environments, and also of microbial degradation network, which involves many direct and indirect interactions with each other.

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The utilization of biodiesel as an alternative fuel for diesel engines offers number of environmental benefits owing to its renewable plant oil. Furthermore, biodiesel exhibits fuel properties comparable to petroleum-based diesel fuel making modification of diesel engines unnecessary. Nevertheless, the use of neat biodiesel (B100) is limited by its poor low-temperature flow characteristics and its poor torque. While the chemistry involved in producing biodiesel is relatively uncomplicated, the most demanding task for producing such kind of biomass fuel on a commercial scale is to pass existing regulations such as EN 14214 (European Standard) that impose strict requirements on its quality. This is a mandatory prerequisite in order to classify the product suitable for fuel use.
This research was undertaken to develop a continuous production process for converting crude sunflower oil into fuel-grade methyl esters. The emphasis of the study was on controlling regulated impuri-ties especially the residual glyceride contents in the fuel product which are highly affected by the production method and process conditions. We also introduce a novel pour point depressant which can make the application of biodiesel more practical.

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Currently Malaysia is the biggest producer of palm oil in the world. The world demand of palm oil will increase from now on. Apart from the edible oil, the palm oil industry also yields a huge amount of biomass including empty fruit bunch (EFB) and palm oil mill effluent (POME). Generally POME is treated in anaerobic ponding (lagoon) system, generating a huge amount of methane which is not utilized effectively. Methane is a greenhouse effect gas, thus its free release should be reduced. The Kyoto Protocol encourages developed countries to cooperate with developing countries to reduce the greenhouse effect gas in the developing counties. This is called Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). Palm oil industry can contribute to reducing the greenhouse effect gases because the oil palm plantation is the great adsorption sink of carbon dioxide and furthermore any installation of modern methane fermentation systems for the treatment of POME can reduce methane by a huge amount. On the other hand, currently the issue of biomass resources is greatly focused on by the Japanese government to reduce the fossil resources in order to reduce greenhouse gas emission. According to the economic growth in Malaysia, development of new oil palm plantation in the tropical rain forest becomes no longer economically effective. In order to meet the increasing demand for palm oil in the future, it will become essential for the palm oil industry to cooperate with other industries, the environment and the society. CDM provides a mechanism for a complete methane fermentation system which can change the lagoon area to a profitable area for other uses. The implementation of CDM can also provide electricity using the methane fermentation system to supply to novel business with a very good price. This enables the production of many valued bio-products from biomass from the palm oil industry, such as ethanol, poly-lactate, organic acids, bio-plastics, etc. These palm oil policy and strategy would encourage the warm and wet countries around the equator to become a sustainable society.

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