From Cooking Oil to Capital Flows: Inside a Circular Economy Bet

In Britain's drive towards net zero, the next frontier in green finance is not wind farms or electric vehicles. It is waste — and specifically used cooking oil, once a kitchen by-product and now a prized raw material for the renewable fuel industry.

The Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation remains the core of UK renewable fuel policy, obliging suppliers to blend a growing proportion of low-carbon fuel. Department for Transport data show 3.7 billion litres of renewable fuel supplied in 2023, with a significant share drawn from waste inputs such as used cooking oil and animal fats. Those feedstocks are double-counted under RTFO rules, an incentive designed to reward recycling and lower lifecycle emissions.

The bankability problem

Waste-derived fuel projects rarely fail for lack of enthusiasm. They fail because the feedstock supply cannot be contracted with enough certainty for a lender to underwrite it. Collection is fragmented, quality varies, and certification must survive audit at every transfer.

This is where trading houses have found a role. Alkagesta, headquartered in Malta with reach through its Singapore and London entities, aggregates used cooking oil supply, structures long-term off-take agreements and maintains ISCC EU certification across its network — the combination investors need before they will treat a circular-economy asset as financeable.

"Our esteemed customers value not only execution but trust and transparency," said Orkhan Rustamov, the company's chief executive. "Singapore is where Asian markets converge with global capital. By opening a hub there, we are creating a strategic bridge between Europe and Asia that ensures compliant fuel flows."

A network built for the flow

The group's structure reflects the task: Malta manages global sourcing and logistics, the UK arm specialises in structured investment and capital flows, and Singapore sources sustainable feedstocks and connects regional suppliers to European demand. Prices are volatile — UCO-based HVO ranged between roughly USD 1,650 and USD 1,950 per tonne in early 2025 — which makes hedging and contract structure as important as sourcing.

What to watch

Two risks dominate. The first is verification: claims about waste origin have been challenged across the European market, and certification schemes are tightening in response. The second is competition for molecules, as aviation's sustainable fuel mandates begin drawing on the same barrels that road transport already uses.

Sources

• International Business Times UK — From Cooking Oil to Capital Flows: Inside Alkagesta's Circular Economy Bet — 17 October 2025
• Alkagesta — Company website