[Sustain] SFBG Report On Local Biodiesel

[Eric Brooks]

Hi all,

This report is much more responsible and realistic than the one a couple 
of months ago at beyondchron.com. However, it is a bit vague about 
exactly what specific locally sourced biodiesel the SFPUC plans to use, 
and I seriously wonder whether a lot of that fuel is planned to come 
newly produced from local field grown agriculture, rather than waste 
restaurant grease and oil...

http://www.sfbg.com/printable_entry.php?entry_id=5495


   From fryers to fuel

/SFGreasecycle hits the restaurant circuit/

By Rachel Stern

 > news at sfbg.com <mailto:news at sfbg.com>

*GREEN CITY*

At Ar Roi Thai in Nob Hill, about 75 gallons of oil are left over every 
month from the creation of the restaurant's deep-fried cuisine, 
according to manager Theresa Shotiveyaratana. But instead of dumping it, 
the business donates its gunk to the newly established SFGreasecycle, 
which converts it into biodiesel that is now used to power San Francisco 
city vehicles such as Muni buses and fire engines.

As of Dec. 31, 2007, the city completed a yearlong project proposed in 
Mayor Gavin Newsom's Biodiesel Initiative, which called for all 1,600 
municipal vehicles to run exclusively on B20, a mixture of 20 percent 
pure biodiesel and 80 percent traditional petroleum diesel. The blend is 
compatible with most modern-day diesel engines and reduces carbon 
monoxide emissions by 12 percent and the particulate matter found in 
smog by 20 percent.

But most of that biodiesel hasn't been generated locally: the city is 
halfway through its three-year master fuel contract with San Francisco 
Petroleum, which gets the stuff from soybean oil produced in the Midwest.

"It's really not enough that a city looks at using biofuels to offset 
fossil fuels," said Karri Ving, the San Francisco Public Utilities 
Commission's biofuels coordinator and one of SFGreasecycle's three staff 
members. "We don't want to go from one environmentally disastrous fuel 
to another. We want less shipping miles from the middle of the country."

That's where SFGreasecycle, a $1.3 million program put into action by 
the SFPUC last month, comes in. It picks up used fats, oils, and grease 
(known in the program as FOG) at no charge from wherever people are 
willing to spare them. The list currently comprises mostly eateries, 
from chains like Baja Fresh and locals like Ar Roi, but also households, 
high schools, a synagogue, and museums such as the de Young.

About 170 restaurants have signed up so far, allowing the organization 
to collect an average of 5,000 gallons of so-called yellow grease --- or 
what comes straight from the frying pan --- per month. Furthermore, its 
efforts are a way of keeping congealed grease out of sewer pipes, which 
costs the city roughly $3.5 million in cleanup efforts per year, 
according to the SFPUC.

Ving said the organization has even loftier goals in mind. By the 
beginning of 2010 it aims to collect 100,000 gallons of grease per 
month. That's about 20 percent of the five to six million gallons of 
diesel that the Department of the Environment estimates the municipal 
fleet burns per year.

Mark Westlund, the spokesperson for the Department of the Environment, 
said using the grease as a replacement for the imported fuel is a real 
possibility as they have "an almost one-to-one conversion rate."

SFGreasecycle uses four biodiesel treatment plants in the Bay Area to 
convert the grease to usable fuel. And sticking with its zero-waste 
goals, it donates the small amount of unusable, low-quality grease to 
the plants, which convert it into methane, which in turn powers these 
facilities.

Eric Bowen, chair of the city's Biodiesel Access Task Force, shares 
Ving's sentiment that "not all biodiesel is created equal," he told us. 
The task force is working with the Board of Supervisors to expand the 
local sources of biodiesel when the fuel contract expires in 18 months 
and to look into building a production facility in the city, where none 
currently exist.

The United States Department of Energy estimates that biodiesel contains 
roughly 8 percent less energy per gallon than petroleum diesel, although 
that translates into only about a 1 percent difference in mileage and 
performance.

Bowen said using biodiesel is a win-win situation since it acts as a 
natural solvent to clean fuel filters. And "the improved lubricity 
extends the vehicle life," he said. But before they use biodiesel for 
the first time, diesel tanks must be cleaned out, which the Fire 
Department found costs $2,000 to $3,000 per tank.

SFGreasecycle also complements the city's Climate Action Plan, which 
aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 20 percent below 1990 levels 
by 2012. "The goal is not just to make San Francisco sustainable," Ving 
told us, "but to develop a program that can be implemented by other 
municipalities."

/Comments, ideas, and submissions for Green City, the /Guardian/'s 
weekly environmental column, can be sent to news at sfbg.com 
<mailto:news at sfbg.com>./

Wednesday January 23, 2008

-- 
"I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. The people liberate themselves." -- Che Guevara

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