San Francisco is a grease factory

Like we reported last week, humans are going nuts by a thing called yellow grease — what you might refer to as used, nasty fryer oil — to the point of stealing it out of unwatched grease traps. To follow up on that news, SF mayor Gavin Newsome announced Friday that the city has green-lighted a factory to turn the city’s 2.5 million gallons of brown grease — burned pan scrapings and residue — into biodiesel.

The dirtier brown grease is usually separated and discarded, but the

new process will turn it into yet another green fuel resource for the city’s fleet vehicles. Brown grease can be refined into three grades: vehicle certified diesel, lower grade biodiesel for sewage pumps, and fuel for cogeneration (methane capturing). The new biodiesel plant is being funded in part by a $1M grant from the California Energy Commission and will be located at the city’s Oceanside Sewage Treatment Plant — a good place to hide a stinky brown grease operation.

[via Earth2Tech]

Orginal post by Josh Loposer

environmental issues price of oil human nature going green epa popular science ocean pollution an inconvenient truth pollution wildlife