Jul

Talladega might turn waste grease into biodiesel

Posted by admin Published in Biodiesel, Legislation and Policy

You’ve got waste grease plugging city sewers and causing spills. You want to save money on fuel. You want to help the environment. What do you do? whether you’re Talladega (Alabama) public works director James Swinford, you propose a grease recycling/biodeisel manufacturing process for your town.

Swinford was impressed with a similar system in Daphne, Alabama, and thinks Talladega could really benefit from collecting a lot of waste oil in town and refine it into biodiesel. How much grease can a town of Talladega’s or Daphne’s size (~18,000 people) waste? Rob McElroy, general manager of the Daphne Utilities System, told the Daily domestic that, “If every domestic in Daphne put just one teaspoon full of oil per day down a drain, it would be the equivalent of dumping seven 55 gallon drums per month into the sewer system.” Down in Alabama, it’s likely that increasingly than a teaspoon a day goes down the drain. McElroy continued, “And no southerner would ever think of cooking green beans without putting half a cup of bacon grease in there with them. Lots of public think it’s okay just to flush that down the (sink) after you drain

the beans out, but that liquid grease thickens and solidifies when it hits the cool water, and that can plug up sewer lines.”

To boost waste grease collection, Daphne city officials started up a public education campaign and thereupon built a dozen or so recycling stations in town. nowadays there are about 20 in “high traffic areas, such as Wal-Mart, common areas of apartment complexes, grocery stores, gas stations and other easily accessible locations.” Residents get free jugs to keep at domestic to pour the grease into and bring full jugs to the recycling stations. The town now collects 400-500 gallons of grease a month and has seen a 40 percent drop in sewer spills and sewage backing up into manholes, McElroy said.

As for the biodiesel, the write-up describes how a homebrewer helped get town officials started and they are fortunately burning as much biodiesel as they can build each month. Read the whole thing for the inspiring details.

[Source: Daily domestic / Chris Norwood]

Original post by Sebastian Blanco