By Ryan Smith
“Grease is the word.”
A couple of years ago, that was just the title of an Allegheny College study on the feasibility of using biodiesel fuels in some of Meadville’s city maintenance vehicles.
Now, “the word” is being put into action.
Joined by officials from Allegheny and its Center for Economic and Environmental Development, city staff and leaders were at the college Wednesday, collecting up numerous containers labeled “All Purpose Cooking and Frying Oil.” All-purpose, indeed — having exhausted its usefulness in the areas of cooking and
frying in Allegheny’s eating establishments, the oil is now being converted into biodiesel fuel.
“What was a waste (is now) a source of fuel for the city,” said Allegheny’s sustainability coordinator, Kelly Boulton.
Led by Allegheny professor Richard Bowden, the group of students who conducted the study investigated various aspects of making cooking oil-based biodiesel available for the city’s use: among the information compiled were potential sources for the base ingredient, the volumes those sources produce, the city’s diesel fuel use and related expenditures and overall interest in pursuing the project.
City Manager Joe Chriest said the city uses between 12,000 and 13,000 of diesel fuel each year, and Allegheny’s investigators determined the nearly 60 local eating establishments canvassed during the study actually produce a total of about 12,000 gallons of waste oil annually. Each gallon of that oil can be converted into a gallon biodiesel fuel.
The study determined that “if we collected all the waste oil” from all those potential sources, “we could fulfill all the biodiesel needs of the city,” Boulton said, adding the college had previously contracted with an outside-the-area hauler for removal of the waste oil.
And if all of those sources were to participate in the program, Allegheny officials said, the addition of biodiesel could translate into an estimated savings of roughly $20,000 each year for the city over the estimated cost of using only petroleum-based diesel fuel.
Chriest said as it stands, the city’s been producing about 300 gallons of biodiesel each month using waste oil collected from the local restaurants currently participating. Allegheny officials estimated they’ll be contributing up to another 1,000 gallons of oil each year for the city’s use.
Chriest said the biodiesel is produced at a cost of around $1 less per gallon than the price of standard diesel fuel. A total of roughly 1,600 gallons of biodiesel have been produced over the past year, he said.
As important as any potential cost-savings, officials said, is the viability and sustainability of cooking oil-based biodiesel as an alternative fuel source. It can be used in standard diesel engines without any special modifications, it’s renewable (or rather, renewed) and it’s considered one of the cleanest biodiesel fuels available, emitting much less carbon dioxide than traditional fossil fuels.
A question, then: Will city residents now be catching whiffs of fried food as some city vehicles drive by? Maybe, according to Boulton.
Depending on what was cooked in the oil when it was still cooking oil, she said, the aroma — faint, but detectable — “might be french fries, it might be donuts,” or anything else it was used to cook.
One city staff member said to him, the finished product, when in use, smells a bit like the midway at the Crawford County Fairgrounds.
Whatever the case, Boulton said, “I would rather smell french fries than diesel fuel any day.”
Ryan Smith can be reached at 724-6370 or by e-mail at rsmith@meadvilletribune.com.
