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Fuel from the grease trap
By By Ryan Randazzo, The Arizona Republic
February 15, 2008
Eating fried chicken wings and french fries might not clean out your arteries, but it actually could help clean up the air, now that two local companies are transforming waste cooking oil from local restaurants into diesel fuel.
Amereco Biofuels Corp. expects its first deliveries this month to commercial customers in Tucson and Las Vegas, said Bill Sheaffer, executive vice president of marketing for the plant, located west of Phoenix in the town of Arlington.
And soon Chandler-based AZ BioDiesel expects to pass fuel-testing standards and begin production, said Christopher Rees, vice president of sales and marketing.
Biodiesel can be used in most diesel engines without modifications, but is a solvent and can loosen engine deposits caused by traditional diesel, clogging fuel filters at first. Its most common use is in fleets, such as those operated by cities and school districts, because blending it with diesel is a simple way to reduce pollution without buying new vehicles.
"Biodiesel is an easy transition," Sheaffer said.
Officials are hopeful more Arizona stations will offer the fuel now that it is produced locally. Biodiesel usually retails about a dime more per gallon than regular diesel, even with subsidies available to fuel blenders.
"We are very interested in this," said Bob Kec, the owner of Western States Petroleum, which offers a 99 percent biodiesel blend at a South 15th Avenue location in Phoenix and a blend of 20 percent in Carefree. "The more producers we have, the better off the marketer is."
The 99 percent fuel often is mixed with regular diesel, especially in cold weather, which canthicken pure biodiesel.
The biodiesel at Kec's pumps is made from soybeans, whereas Amereco and AZ BioDiesel are recycling a variety of oil that normally would go into landfills.
Restaurants are prohibited from dumping cooking oil down the drain, and often must pay for it to be collected.
The two local refineries join about 169 others operating in the nation, most in farming regions where they have access to fresh crops, according to the National Biodiesel Board. However, statistics from the board show that many of the 60 plants under construction or expansion this year will use recycled food oil.
Amereco ready to go
Amereco works with companies already in the grease-collection business for its stock.
Officials with Amereco would not disclose their investment for their plant, which Sheaffer said could handle orders of 15 million gallons a year and has acres to expand.
Amereco is buying oil collected from across the Phoenix area and as far away as Las Vegas and Salt Lake City, paying 10 cents to 20 cents per pound, President Martin Gerst said.
Amereco's facility is a simple series of storage containers, the first containing thousands of gallons of rancid fryer grease that eventually will leave the facility resembling dark sesame oil.
Amereco's process for making the fuel takes one to two days, depending how many forks and napkins, and especially water and glycerin, must be separated from a batch of waste oil.
The company is considering uses for the leftover glycerin, which might fire a boiler or be purified for cosmetic uses.
Firm wants bus business
Unlike Amereco, AZ BioDiesel has its own collection company to bring it grease for biodiesel.
AZ BioDiesel has spent more than $500,000 developing its plant, which Rees said should be able to produce 5 million gallons of fuel annually.
The company formed last spring, and now has agreements to collect grease from about 300 restaurants, Rees said, averaging about 75 gallons a restaurant per month.
Because it is awaiting certification for its fuel, AZ BioDiesel hasn't yet ramped up production.
The company has some commitments from companies that operate small diesel-vehicle fleets to buy its fuel once in production, and officials plan to target school districts for sales, he said.
"We are strictly an Arizona company," he said. "Diesel emissions are extremely harmful to children, and we want to target bus fleets first. We don't plan to export any biodiesel out of state."
Better than ethanol
Biodiesel officials go to great lengths to distance their product from ethanol, a gasoline substitute commonly made from corn in the United States. Ethanol has been scrutinized recently for its inefficiency and pressure on food prices.
Unlike ethanol, biodiesel does not compromise fuel efficiency when used as a substitute for fossil fuel. Diesel and biodiesel engines both offer higher mileage than gasoline engines. And if produced from waste oil, biodiesel doesn't compete with food crops.
"Philosophically, we don't think it's the right thing to do to use food for fuel," Sheaffer said.
Biodiesel also can reduce greenhouse gasses that contribute to global climate change. And it produces less visible air pollution than die-sel.
Because it's a relatively simple process to refine cooking oil into fuel, diesel-engine hobbyists are known to cook up their own biodiesel. Still, biodiesel requires methanol, a natural-gas product, to make up about 10 percent of the fuel's volume.
"You can make it at home, but we don't recommend it," said Sheaffer, who also volunteers as an alternative-fuels advocate.
"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that being dependent on the Middle East, Venezuela, Argentina and other places for our oil isn't a good thing."
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