Warren looks at fuel from grease
City following similar operation in AlabamaBy BILL RODGERS Tribune Chronicle
Article Photos
WARREN - The City Council Energy Committee is discussing getting fuel from fried food.
They discussed a company in Alabama - Biodiesel Logic - that claims it can turn waste vegetable oil from restaurants into biodiesel fuel at a cost of about 60 to 90 cents a gallon.
A nearby town, Hoover, Ala., uses this fuel to power its truck fleet, according to the city Web site and cable news reports.
Councilman Dan Crouse, I-at large, stressed that the discussion Tuesday was preliminary. No plans have been finalized and no deals have been made, but the idea was discussed as one possibility to cut down on the cost of the 80,000 gallons of diesel fuel the city burns through in one year. He used the recent dip in gas prices as an example of the need to find ways to save.
"This $1.68 (per gallon) was a short bit of fun. We're going to be back in energy hell in a little bit," Crouse said.
The source oil could be collected from Warren restaurants, which either have to pay to have their fryer oil taken away or sell theirs to another company.
Sunrise Inn owner Ken Haidaris sells his into what he believes to be a similar operation to Biodiesel Logic. He said there was a demand for his fry grease as a fuel.
"I have farmers coming in all the time trying to buy it, but I'm already contracted out," he said.
Haidaris thought a citywide biodiesel program could work, though.
City leaders in Hoover claims it works there. The city collects oil from restaurants and residents to put into its biodiesel facility. The city then uses the fuel to power its truck fleet and equipment. The city's mayor was quoted in a report by Fox News stating that the trucks in Hoover smell like french fries.
Crouse said the fuel sometimes picks up the odor of whatever was cooking in it prior to it becoming biodiesel.
Hoover's Web site announced in 2007 that it won an international award for environmental sustainability from LivCom, which is an organization that recognizes "livable communities."
A company spokesman did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment Wednesday, but Biodiesel Logic's Web site lists rate plans to either lease or buy the equipment. The rate plan lists prices ranging from $10,000 to $100,000.
The city could plumb the murky depths even further than Hoover if tests to a sample of oil from the water treatment plant come up in its favor. The city is sitting on a few thousand gallons of waste vegetable oil that gets skimmed off the top of settling tanks and treated along with everything else at the plant. Crouse said it would be premature to assume that it would work, but in an ideal scenario he hopes this excess material can be turned into tan gold.
The oil and grease is not really welcome at the treatment plant. Workers there say its a hassle to clean up and plant managers say they often will not accept waste oil to disposal. That has not stopped the plant from being on the receiving end of cooking oil which can fill a 20,000 gallon holding tank there.
"The oil ends up in the water when they dump it down the sink - which we encourage people not to do,'' wastewater plant manager Tom Angelo said. ''There's veggie oil in the system every day."
Could that free source material be turned into fuel? People at the committee weren't positive that it could, but they said it could be tested. Angelo sent a sample of the oil to Precision Analytical laboratory Wednesday morning to look at its value in British thermal units, its flashpoint and whether it leaves behind any harmful byproducts.
Crouse said he would ask people at Biodiesel Logic if the material would work in the system. There's also a question of any odor that type of biodiesel would create.
He also announced that the city administration has sent a letter of interest to another company that could heat sewage sludge and use the gas that comes off of it to create electricity. The city would need to create a request for proposals before contracting with any company offering to do this first.
The committee also is looking at combining city departments into fewer buildings to save on heating costs.
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SURV69
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01-09-09 7:36 AM
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I do wonder why "ideas", in this area ALWAYS come as "reactive" ideas, instead of "proactive" ideas. It just seems that no one puts any thoughts to doing ANYTHING better, until their backs are against the wall. This seems to be for E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G.
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OutsideTheBox
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01-08-09 7:28 PM
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Mark33, currently, one can produce biodiesel (assuming you get old grease at no charge, as anyone in a contract to pay to have it hauled away will give it away for free happily), for around 46 cents per gallon. There is no tax on fuel you make yourself, because there is no sale on it. The point is - the City "energy committee" should have looked at this. Make it youselves at the poo plant or pay someone out of state company twice as much money to come in and do it for you? Which would you choose?
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Handala
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01-08-09 6:37 PM
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Slick!Hmm?
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SURV69
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01-08-09 11:23 AM
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Mark33 Evidently you don't drive a diesel . . . neither do I. BUT, I thought about buying a diesel last summer, so I watched the prices and I watched the prices rise to $5 a gallon. It could rise like this agin . . . probably will. I think this is a great idea, but someone has to pay the start-up costs or give incentives for a company to come into town and do it. This is something the City of Warren could've looked at years ago . . . when they still had, at least some money to spare.
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Mark33
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01-08-09 10:35 AM
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Well, if diesel is currently 2.37 a gallon and rising and if they could produce it for 90 cents a gallon why would they not try it? Diesel was well over $3 a gallon last year when they used 80,000 gallons for a cost of at least $240000. Even with an inital cost up to $100000 for equiptment it seems like a no brainer, as long as they could get enough waste vegetable oil.
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SURV69
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01-08-09 7:54 AM
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Not a bad idea . . . in fact it's a good idea. BUT who's going to pay for the laying out of a facility and the processing? If it's a for profit company(that comes in), what are the "complete" costs going to be to start up? Is it money that will be quickly realized in savings . . . I mean very quickly. OR will the expenditure of start-up costs and tax incentives pull the abismal economy further into the depths for a while? Boy . . . this would've been a no-brainer back when Warren had more money, but unless the city wants to sell bonds or something(and to who, I wouldn't know), they would probably have to lay off the rest of the safety forces to pay the costs of getting this going and running to that magical break-even moment.
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escaped
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01-08-09 7:36 AM
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Crouse, a known environment expert, said "the idea was discussed as one possibility to cut down on the cost of the 80,000 gallons of diesel fuel the city burns through in one year." The other ideas tossed around were eliminating the police and fire department vehicles and returning to horse drawn wagons where upon the horse manure could be added to Nature's Blend; turning more profit for the city.
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escaped
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01-08-09 7:33 AM
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There's plenty of grease in Warren city government to go around... Once again, they focus on money making schemes; the "fiddle" while Warren burns.
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OldManGrump2
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01-08-09 7:01 AM
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Looks like the people of Warren will have to eat a lot of fried chicken in the future to support this vegetable oil conversion. $100,000 for the convesrion equipment sounds like a waste of Warren taxpayer money to me, but then again I wonder how much political campaign bribe money Council & O'Brien will get in return? I wonder if Tom Angelo will store it in the parking lot next to the dry sewage?
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OutsideTheBox
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01-08-09 1:52 AM
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bids* sorry
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OutsideTheBox
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01-08-09 1:52 AM
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The City was offered a solution to the rising costs of garbage by a company that wants to turn it to energy - OBrien, in his infinite wisdom, said the City has to open that up to bods (?!). Yet Council went and picked a company out of state to make biodiesel. Who found this company? Does council have any idea that you can make biodiesel with your own equipment for around 55 cents a gallon if you purchase the systems yourself? Probably not, and they won't believe you if you tell the that. God this city is amusing.
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SUKSBAZ
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01-08-09 1:14 AM
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Yes recycled grease can be turned into alternative fuel, but your will never realize a savings. the cost of nothing will ever come down. Once it it realized that we will pay through our noses. We will continue. Have food and other prices come down since gasoline prices fell "NO" Once it is realized that you are willing to pay an an extreme amount... why go back on your prices. Alternative fuels and other new answers are not the answer. Honesty and the desire to see that thing fall back into prospective are! That has long ago been lost. Its every man for himself, and whatever happens to those who can't pay is none of the rich man's business... as there are plenty more out there who are willing to pay, and not be responsible for thinking of how this whole mess came to be. We have fuel... but we have far more greed than need, and that's why we are in this big mess. Start buying as little as you can, and when they force the prices higher to get more out of you... by less
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