$1m Grant for SF Grease to Biodiesel Facility

The grant was made by the californian Energy Commission and was made to the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC), the body that will build the plant.

The facility will be sited at the SFPUC’s Oceanside Sewage Treatment Plant, and is considered unique because it will attempt to create three grades of biodiesel from brown grease, which are pan scrapings and washed oil residue trapped in grease traps/interceptors under a restaurant sink. According to the SFPUC there are more than 2.5 million gallons of brown grease in the city, compared with 1.5 million gallons of yellow grease like fryer oil. Biodiesel from grease is easily created using the cleaner yellow grease, while brown grease is typically discarded at sewage treatment plants.

The CEC is looking closely at this and similar projects to help cover California’s anticipated one billion gallon shortfall of biodiesel by 2022. The shortfall is anticipated even with a growing number of yellow grease recycling programs like the SFGreasecycle, which the City launched in November 2007 to collect yellow grease from restaurants to fuel City vehicles, buses and fire trucks. The SFPUC, which manages the SFGreasecycle program, will also manage the brown grease pilot project. The construction of the brown grease biodiesel facility should be complete in December 2008.

View the Biofuel Review story by clicking here.

TheBioenergySite News Desk

Sign up for our
regular news updates

Latest Bioenergy Industry News

•   DuPont Launches Photovoltaic Solutions Business
•   Biomass Plant Running on Chicken Manure Online
•   Guizhou Jatropha Curcas Biodiesel Oil Output Predicted to Hit 1mn Tons
•   USGC Spearheads Libya’s First DDGS Imports
•   Is Algae the Next Biofuel Alternative?
•   Biomass Field Trials of Hemp to Be Pioneered
•   IBI Acquires Second Argentinian Biodiesel Plant
•   Bioenergy Program for Biodiesel a Priority
•   Malaysian Palm Oil Futures Decline
•   New Zealand's Biofuels Legislation Passed