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Hi all,<br>
<br>
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...<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.sfbg.com/printable_entry.php?entry_id=5495">http://www.sfbg.com/printable_entry.php?entry_id=5495</a><br>
<p> </p>
<h1>From fryers to fuel</h1>
<p><i>SFGreasecycle hits the restaurant circuit</i></p>
<p>By Rachel Stern</p>
<p>› <a href="mailto:news@sfbg.com">news@sfbg.com</a></p>
<p><b>GREEN CITY</b><br>
</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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." </p>
<p><i>Comments, ideas, and submissions for Green City, the </i>Guardian<i>'s
weekly environmental column, can be sent to <a
href="mailto:news@sfbg.com">news@sfbg.com</a>.</i></p>
<div class="entry_created_on">Wednesday January 23, 2008</div>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
"I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. The people liberate themselves." – Che Guevara</pre>
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