I love the quote “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure”, especially in today’s economy.

Take for example Fats, Oils, and Grease, known as brown grease found in grease traps. This trash has a value greater than the $90 – $120 expense it takes it to be hauled off to a dump, by some 3^rd party carrier.

When I mentioned this in a training class I hosted, I received, well let’s just say some raised eyebrows, until I posed the question.

If you saw hundred dollar bill on the ground with a yellow post-it note pinned to it saying “take me home I’m yours” – would you pick it up?
 
Of course everyone said yes, except 1 or 2 skeptics.
 
So I asked another question to see if I could get a resounding 100% agreement.
 
Let’s say that you own land that has been in your family for hundreds of years, and one day, you dig in a spot and see gold coins lying under a rock in the remnants of an old bank bag.
 
Would you pick it up?
 
I got my ah-ha moment – everyone said yes, even the skeptics.
 
Then I said, “Where would you take the gold to exchange it for money?”
 
A number of people replied, “A bank!”
 
“No bank will accept gold and give you cash, in this day and time.”  I said. 

Here is my point about the brown grease in a grease trap.

 
That supposedly worthless grease; when separated from the solids and water, through a centrifugal process can convert the brown grease into a matter that is viscous enough to blend with oil. The waste can be sold or hauled off for free to someone that can convert the matter into bio-diesel that currently sells for $2.50 or more per gallon.

So instead of spending $100+ dollars every 30 – 90 days to have your brown grease hauled off where it is dumped into a water treatment facility, causing pollution, and mounds of waste matter to accumulate, you have a viable energy source sitting in your grease trap.

Whereas with the gold coins, you have to locate a coin collector that deals in gold and then have the transaction reported to the government as well as go through a whole other ordeal to validate the gold was not some illegal transaction, assuming a dealer would even accept your gold – or worse, fight with someone that claims that they own the coins.

Who Cares?

What prompted me to create this post was a series of emails from readers, over the past several months, that wanted to know more about converting waste into fuel. The original comments were directed to me from a post written by Kate Leahy this past September 2009 entitled Restaurant & Institution – A New Waste Age for Restaurants.

 The article discussed some common sense ways retailers, restaurants; in particular are paying close attention to a waste-removal system that has sustainable benefits.

 What is missing from the article are that a number of the processes mentioned in the article are now regulated by municipality codes and are no longer optional.

 Additionally, to create a truly sustainable environment, producers have an opportunity to benefit from the waste that is a direct result of their business operations, i.e. “Brown Grease”.

The questions most often asked are:

1. Are municipalities working with the bio fuel companies to create bio diesel from waste?
2. What does it take to produce bio diesel from waste?
3. Do you know of someone making bio fuel from brown grease?

 The short answer is, if you are a brown grease producer, like a restaurant, car wash, laundry mat, or coming soon, a office campus or apartment complex, it would behoove you to find a 3^rd party bio diesel refiner and “GIVE” away your brown grease. Cheaper than paying to have it hauled off to a dump.

 The long answer is that it will be difficult to find a bio diesel refiner. Even with government regulations that offers incentives or tax abatements for renewable energy, which state:

 “Manufacturing Tax Credits (Qualifying Advanced Energy Project Investment Tax Credit)

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 establishes a new investment tax credit to encourage the development of a U.S.-based renewable energy manufacturing sector.

In any taxable year, the investment tax credit is equal to 30% of the qualified investment required for an advanced energy project that establishes, re-equips or expands a manufacturing facility that produces any of the following: Equipment and/or technologies used to produced energy from the sun, wind, geothermal or “other” renewable resources; fuel cells, microturbines or energy-storage systems for use with electric or hybrid-electric motor vehicles; equipment used to refine or blend renewable fuels; equipment and/or technologies to produce energy-conservation technologies (including energy-conserving lighting technologies and smart grid technologies). In total, $2.3 billion worth of credits may be allocated under the program.”

The longer answer is, that the waste conversion process is being tested by a number of energy companies. I am currently testing the process through a waste management group, I represent in Houston –Through a relationship I facilitated with a local University, we are bench testing and creating a proof of concept in a small scale environment using a laboratory type centrifuge, similar to what would go through a small to mid size waste producer (like a restaurant) of a 750 – 2,000 gallon grease trap. 

The results have been impressive – Unfortunately, to provide a truly commercial application, you would need to process 7,500 – 20,000 gallons of brown grease a day to create a sustainable application, and provide enough volume to warrant the government off-set for bio fuels, through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. 

2 companies I’ve worked with in the past are investigating the potential of refining waste fuel, but with the change in waste regulations, more effort is being placed on cleaning the product, as opposed to developing a bio fuel source, and then dumping lesser amounts of waste in the municipal dumps.

 I’ve found a company that builds large capacity centrifuges specifically designed for instantaneous and continuous separation of biodiesel/glycerin, as well as pre-treatment separation of water, fats, oil and grease solids from vegetable oils, but not waste matter such as brown grease. 

With minor modifications, we can adapt our current process to use this centrifuge and convert the brown grease into a matter that is viscous enough to blend with oil and then convert to bio-diesel, as a 3rd process, or sell the oil to a refiner. 

I’ve also learned that there is an application for Algae fuel, also known algal fuel, oilgae, or  algaeoleum using a similar technology of separating algae from the medium by using a centrifuge to cause the algae to settle to the bottom of a flask or tank, where as in the in the brown grease separation process, we are separating the water from the matter, passing that water to a secondary filtration system that is re-introduced into the water system, cleaner than the water that is currently in the stream, and allowing the solids to settle to the bottom of the tank. 

The remaining waste oil is removed, and is now ready to be blended with used transmission, crank case, or motor oil. One group has shown that they are interested in the process, once the removal of water is less than 3% remaining in the blend, at which point the bio diesel refining process can remove the remaining moister/water, allowing for production of larger volumes of alternate diesel fuel.

If you have anyone that is interested in truly becoming a green test bed, we have funds in Texas that are specifically for emerging technologies, and bio energy projects. It would make a great business case, and I would love to participate.

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