Mar 3, 2009 1:24 pm US/Eastern
Local Company Turning Grease Into Fuel
PHILADELPHIA (CBS 3) ―
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This sewer grease can be converted to biodiesel in about two hours.
CBS
Making gold out of grease is what a Philadelphia company is trying to do. Sewer grease looks just like it sounds -- ugly. It comes from the traps in restaurant sinks.
"The crude material that comes in, as you can see, it's pretty gross," said Emily Bockian Landsburg, the CEO of BlackGold Biofuels.
"We take that nasty material and we convert that into a really high-grade biodiesel."
Bockian Landsburg started this pilot plant in Philadelphia. Her team got help from Mike Haas, a research biochemist with the USDA.
"One of the features especially of biodiesel is that it's very easy to make badly. To make quality fuel is much more difficult," said Haas.
First, the system cleans the grease of all water and trash. Then a variety of chemical processes purify the grease into a clear liquid.
We're told it takes about two hours to turn the sludge into biodiesel. Not only does biodiesel burn cleaner than regular diesel, it helps solve a big environmental problem: Taking grease out of a sewer keeps pipes clean and prevents backups.
Bockian Landsburg said, "Instead of maybe mining or drilling for oil in a foreign or hostile land, we can pop open a sewer, go down a manhole, and get that material," and find a better use for goop.
BlackGold Biofuels just struck a deal to provide biodiesel to the city of San Francisco, and Landsburg hopes to open a new, bigger plant in Philadelphia as soon as possible.
RELATED LINK:
BlackGold Biofuels
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