http://domesticfuel.com/2015/03/06/lenten-fish-fries-fuel-biodiesel-production-in-omaha/
[links in on-line article]
Lenten Fish Fries Fuel Biodiesel Production in Omaha
Posted on March 6, 2015 by John Davis
Truly one of the highlights of Lent, the six weeks from Ash Wednesday to
Easter when Catholics make sacrifices, including meat on Fridays, is the
church fish fry on those Fridays. This story from the Omaha World-Herald
says the leftover fryer grease from those fish fries in the area is
going to a very worthy cause: biodiesel production.
Just in time for this year’s Lenten season, a savior appeared: the Omaha
Biofuels Cooperative, which is collecting used cooking oil from many
area churches. The group places collection barrels out back free of
charge and picks up the used oil the next day.
“They took a big-time problem off my hands,” [Pat Rupp runs the fish
fries at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in Gretna] said.
And what happens next is the cool part: Co-op members make motor fuel
out of the used cooking oil. The co-op has a production facility in an
industrial park in South Omaha, where the used oil is cleaned up and
made suitable for use in powering the motor vehicles owned by the co-op
members. Any diesel car or truck made after 1996 can use the fuel
without modification, the group says.
The article goes on to talk about how Omaha Biofuels has agreements with
many area restaurants to collect their used vegetable oil and turn it
into the green fuel.
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http://www.omaha.com/money/omaha-co-op-turns-used-oil-from-fish-fries-restaurants/article_7105cf7b-60e3-5c61-aad9-00aead95fa5a.html
[images in on-line article]
Omaha co-op turns used oil from fish fries, restaurants into motor fuel
Posted: Friday, March 6, 2015 1:00 am
By Russell Hubbard / World-Herald staff writer
Pat Rupp runs the fish fries at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in
Gretna, and found himself with a 300-gallon problem.
The church puts on six fish fries a year, a major fundraising effort.
Rupp, a Knights of Columbus volunteer, said he and his kitchen crew
often serve 1,000 people per event.
The fried goodies come with a byproduct: used cooking oil. About 50
gallons of it per event. Rupp has tried holding tanks and haul-away
services (smelly), and even had someone advise him to barrel it up
himself and haul it up the road to a busy restaurant for recycling
(time-consuming).
Just in time for this year’s Lenten season, a savior appeared: the Omaha
Biofuels Cooperative, which is collecting used cooking oil from many
area churches. The group places collection barrels out back free of
charge and picks up the used oil the next day.
“They took a big-time problem off my hands,” Rupp said.
And what happens next is the cool part: Co-op members make motor fuel
out of the used cooking oil. The co-op has a production facility in an
industrial park in South Omaha, where the used oil is cleaned up and
made suitable for use in powering the motor vehicles owned by the co-op
members. Any diesel car or truck made after 1996 can use the fuel
without modification, the group says.
Along with churches, Omaha Biofuels has secured agreements with many
area restaurants to collect their used vegetable oil. Partners include
Dario’s Brasserie, the Grey Plume and Culprit Cafe and Bakery.
The oil has a small resale value that the restaurants are forgoing, but
it doesn’t amount to much, co-op co-founder and president Eric Williams
said. He said the restaurants seem to be happy to contribute to
small-scale, local renewable fuel production; co-op members also
patronize the restaurants, he said.
In addition, the co-op supplies recycled vegetable oil to the passenger
train at the Henry Doorly Zoo. It runs on a blend of vegetable oil and
petroleum fuel.
The zoo’s biodiesel comes from concession stand fryers, according to
ZooPrints, the zoo’s in-house magazine.
“Any remaining oil sludge is recycled,” ZooPrints said. The benefits of
turning waste cooking oil into fuel extend well beyond cost savings by
preventing harmful liquid waste from contaminating groundwater
supplies.” Omaha Biofuels converts the waste oil into biodiesel for the
train.
The Omaha Biofuels Cooperative operates in a hands-on manner. It is a
nonprofit, and there is no fuel for sale. Rather, if you want it, you
have to pitch in and work for it, helping with collection or converting
the used oil into fuel.
Williams said the co-op has 150 people on its mailing list, but only
about a dozen active members. A big draw for some is a craftsman-like
pride in creating their own vehicle fuel.
“I have always been into do-it-yourself fuels,” co-op member Mike Kros
said. “It just feels good to know you are yourself producing what goes
into your own fuel tank.”
Kros said the fuel the co-op creates is less polluting and results in
far less engine wear than traditional diesel. But Kros doesn’t have
anything against petroleum and, like other co-op members, realizes the
world can’t be run on leftover french fry oil.
“But it does make sense to conserve what we have,” said Kros, an Omaha
architect who was also in on the group’s founding.
The co-op was started in 2008 after Williams and twin brother Scott
joined online forums where Volkswagen vehicle owners congregate.
Personal fuel production is a popular hobby among some Volkswagen diesel
engine enthusiasts, and the Williams brothers got involved. At the same
time, they were becoming aware of Nebraska’s growing production of corn
ethanol, another renewable fuel.
“I hadn’t previously realized that Nebraska was in the center of the
emerging biofuels production movement, and that biofuels can be made on
a small scale,” said Eric Williams, a civil engineer who works for the
Papio-Missouri River Natural Resources District planning bicycle and
pedestrian trails and urban stormwater projects.
Soon after, about 10 people joined the group. Everyone contributed a few
dollars to get the equipment, and a producer/consumer fuel license was
obtained from the Nebraska Department of Revenue.
“That means that members of the co-op work together to produce fuel and
are entitled to use that fuel in their vehicles,” Williams said.
Getting used cooking oil into shape for motor vehicles involves
filtering out particles and heating the oil to remove water, burned oil
and heavy waxes. A key part is called “transesterification,” a process
that rearranges the fat molecules in the oil. It’s all done in steel
vats that employ heat and chemical reactions to get the job done.
The finished fuel contains no sulfur and burns clean, with lower
particle emissions than traditional fuels, said Scott Williams, who
works as an academic adviser for the NorthStar Foundation, a nonprofit
after-school program.
The biodiesel produced from waste vegetable oil has the exact same
energy content as petroleum diesel, he said.
“People now want to be more involved with what is going on in their
lives,” Scott Williams said. “We think this ties in very closely with
the local food movement, the microbrews and all of that sort of thing
that gets people participating in what they eat, drink and put in their
vehicles.”
The Williams twins said no one in the group has any delusions about how
much biodiesel from used cooking oil can contribute to the world’s
energy demand. As it is, the co-op is produced a couple of thousand
gallons last year and is aiming for about 15,000 gallons this year.
Through July 2014, the last period for which U.S. Energy Information
Administration figures are available, 678 million gallons of biodiesel
from all sources were produced nationally. U.S. oil producers belt out
more than that every two days.
But, the co-op members say, small-batch, local, cooperative fuel-making
is catching on and paving the way for new thinking. Soybeans, they said,
make a fine motor fuel. Algae is an even better alternative, they said,
as it avoids the “food versus fuel” debate that erupts when crops are used.
There are some large algae farms in New Mexico, and Omaha-based ethanol
producer Green Plains Inc. is the majority owner of a five-acre algae
farm at its plant in Shenandoah, Iowa, where it is exploring the
potential for feed, food and fuel. If things work out as hoped, Green
Plains would expand the operation to “possibly as large as 200 to 400
acres,” according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange
Commission.
There are some longstanding case studies out there on biofuels. Since
1997, the school district in Medford Township, New Jersey, has been
running school buses on biodiesel made from soybeans. And about 150
grassroots organizations around the country are producing some amount of
locally generated biodiesel, according to the Collective Biofuels
Conference, which organizes an annual convention
“It can be done,” Eric Williams said. “We got off the ground for about
$1,000. And a lot of hours of hard work.”
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