Going for the grease with biofuels initiative

Going for the grease with biofuels initiative
CleanEnergy looks to turn residue into energy

By Ed Marcum
Posted July 16, 2009 at midnight

PHOTO BY ADAM BRIMER
Rob DelBueno, middle, a member of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, gives a tour of the new biodiesel
production unit on the University of Tennessee's agricultural campus to Tennessee Department of Agriculture
Commissioner Ken Givens, left, and KUB Vice President of Procurement Dennis Upton, on Wednesday.

Once a week, J.P. Plumlee makes the rounds of
Knoxville restaurants on a quest for grease.

They are usually happy to oblige, he said. They have to

Stephen Smith, executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, speak about the biodiesel production unit Wednesday.

do something with the residue that amasses from frying food.

A waste issue common to nearly every restaurant promises to help ease the University of Tennessee's vehicle fuel concerns if a new hybrid energy program is successful.

"The restaurants are usually eager to participate in this program," Plumlee said. "A lot of times, this actually saves the restaurant money. They are having to pay for people to pick up this waste."

The program is CleanEnergy Biofuels, an initiative run by the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy to convert restaurant grease into biofuel. Restaurants store used grease in special bins that the Southern Alliance provides and Plumlee collects the grease into a 1,500-gallon tank truck. Knoxville restaurants participating include Cafe 4, Crown N Goose, La Costa, Moe's and others.

The grease is trucked to the University of Tennessee's agricultural campus, where it is processed into biodiesel fuel at an operation that the Southern Alliance and the UT Institute of Agriculture unveiled Wednesday.

A host of state and local officials attended, including Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam, state Sens. Tim Burchett and Jamie Hagood, Tennessee Agriculture Commissioner Ken Givens and state Environment and Conservation Commissioner Jim Fyke.

"This is the first and only unit of its kind in Knoxville or in the state," Fyke told a group of about 30 people gathered for the ceremony.

Stephen Smith, executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, said the group has several goals in building the facility, including reducing the harmful environmental effects of vehicle emissions, reducing dependence on oil, and developing a fuel source that is both renewable and locally produced, helping the local economy.

In size, the facility is between a large commercial facility and a small home-based operation. The equipment is set up inside two 40-foot shipping containers and a 9,000-gallon tank trailer. It is capable of processing 1,000 gallons of biodiesel fuel in an eight-hour shift and can produce 380,000 gallons of biodiesel fuel a year, said Rob DelBueno, the Southern Alliance member who spearheaded the system's design.

The project grew from an effort three years ago by the alliance and DelBueno, who designs biofuel facilities, to build one in collaboration with Emory University in Atlanta. That facility produces biodiesel for the university's fleet of vehicles.

A similar arrangement has been made with UT, Smith said, except that the Emory setup was a prototype and the one at UT is more refined. The Knoxville project was funded through a $140,000 Alternative Fuels Innovations Grant that UT secured from

the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation plus $300,000
contributed by the Southern Alliance.

Smith said the plan is to sell biodiesel fuel to UT, other fleet owners and possibly on
the retail market to put revenue back into the operation. The hope is to spark public
interest in biofuels and encourage entrepreneurs, he said.

The biofuel operation is portable and the alliance may sell the units to other
organizations.

"We want to use this for research and to learn, but there is no reason that somebody
couldn't take one of these units and if they wanted to get aggressive about making
money with it, they could do that," Smith said.

The biofuel center also will serve as a research center for other agricultural fuels like
soybean oil and oilseed crops. Biofuel, including biodiesel, is a clean-burning,
biodegradable alternative fuel made from renewable resources, including vegetable
oil, animal fat and used cooking oil.

Business writer Ed Marcum may be reached at 865-342-6267.