Town runs truck on used cooking oil (Maine)

[jpak]

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=177165&ac=PHnws

FAIRFIELD — With the purchase of a simple $40 filter, the local highway department recently converted one of its 1-ton trucks to run on biodiesel made from used cooking oil.

Also, the biofuel is being manufactured in town. Linda Howe and her son, Ralph Howe Jr., both of China, moved their Bio Renewable Fuels manufacturing plant to Fairfield from China, where planners two years ago had rejected their permit application.

The goal this year is to produce as much as 30,000 gallons of fuel a week, or 1.4 million gallons by the end of the year, Town Manager Paul Blanchette said.

"It's only the 1-ton truck, because we're trying it out; but we're getting it from them," Blanchette said. "Anything that operates on diesel can burn biofuel. We added an extra filter because biofuel is cleaner than diesel and diesel leaves a lot of sludge in that tank.

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[democrank]

1. A $40 filter. Amazing.

Thanks for posting this.

[ConcernedCanuk]

2. Used cooking oil - now that makes sense, Is there another use for used cooking oil?

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I read an article not long ago about how much cooking oil is used world-wide - It's quite a lot!

And I'm curious as to what happens with the used oil

If it is just "disposed of" - then it may be efficient to replace some of our fossil fuel consumption.

Cook your food, fuel your generator.

Hmmmm.

[jpak]

3. In Maine, some of it was used as fuel for industrial boilers

n/t

[diane in sf]

4. Used cooking oil is also collected and reused to make stuff like soap. My

ex sister-in-law's son is making a very comfortable living by working with an inventor who designed grease traps for restaurant exhaust hoods and drains. They collect and recycle the grease which is otherwise a fire and plumbing hazard to restaurants. The restaurants pay for the service and the boys also sell the old grease. $$win-win$$

[Dogmudgeon]

5. There's a lot of used cooking oil -- but 85 million bbl/day worth?

This is a nice niche solution, but that's all it is. And its niche is fairly small compared to our petroleum super-niche.

We use about 85 million barrels of petroleum -- literally, "rock oil" -- each day. That's several orders of magnitude greater than all the edible oils the world produces. And it's still one of the larger niche energy sources.

This is a systemic problem, and only systemic solutions will work.

--p!

[diane in sf]

6. A lot of niche solutions can add up. No one magic bullet is going to solve

our energy and garbage problems.