sfbiofuels.org

From Eric Smith:

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - Mayor Gavin Newsom today announced the receipt of
a $1 million California Energy Commission (CEC) grant to the San
Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) to build the City’s
first pilot grease-to-biodiesel production facility.

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. 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.

“Our program to turn waste cooking oil and yellow grease into
biodiesel has been an enormous success, but San Francisco must
continue to raise the bar when it comes to reducing our greenhouse gas
emissions and exploring alternative energies,” said Mayor Newsom.
“With this grant, our unique brown-grease-

to-biodiesel plant will
break new ground for sustainable fuel production in California and
serve as a model for the entire state.”

Brown grease can be refined and created into three “grades” of biodiesel:

High-grade American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) certified
biodiesel for vehicles; Lower grade biofuel source for running sewage
treatment plant diesel plant turbines and pumps; and Rich energy for
cogeneration – the process of capturing methane gas at the sewage
plant and converting that to heating/electrical needs.

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.

“Sewage treatment plants account for 3% of the nation’s electrical
consumption because they run 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” said
SFPUC General Manager Ed Harrington, “This brown-grease to biodiesel
project is a win-win for our ratepayers and the environment. We’ll
keep more grease out of the sewers AND reduce our reliance on outside
energy sources for our treatment plants.”