Waste Veggie Oil Update

Erica SpiegelUVM Recycling Program

Where generated on campus• 7 locations

– Living Learning– Billings (Cook Commons)– Redstone Dining– Harris Millis Dining– Waterman Manor– Given Atrium– Davis Center

• Approx 150-200 gallons per month

Where it went? • Prior to 2002 UDS arrangement with “a bunch of guys in

a pickup from upstate NY” not sure where it really went.

• 2002 – 2005 Baker Commodities Inc. “converts animal by-products and food waste into commercial commodities such as high-protein ingredients for livestock feed and pet food, and tallow, a valuable ingredient in soaps, paints, cosmetics, and more.”…some biofuels too.

• 2005 – last week Green Technologies LLC a small scale biodiesel producer (former UVM Chemistry prof) in Winooski. Now closing up and moving business.

Where it’s now going?

• February 2011 new arrangement with a small local hauler. – Veg oil is pumped into a tank on his truck. – Hauler runs his diesel truck on SVO (“straight veggie oil”)– Hauls two 450 gallon tanks at a time to smartfuel america

facility in Seabrook NH.– Smartfuel filters into a vegetable biofuel (not biodiesel)– Biofuel then used in boiler at FiberMark specialty paper

manufacturer in Brattleboro VT.

“More recently FiberMark converted its boiler operations to run on up to 100% vegetable oil. This project makes the company one of the first in the U.S. paper industry to generate its process energy from waste biofuel. The “green steam” produced by the vegetable oil powers the company’s paper machine turbine, dries the paper, and provides heat for the entire plant. “

Plastic drum = 45-gallonsTank on truck = 450 gallon capacity

Giant “straw” slurps up the oil… which has a syrupy consistency in cold weather.

Where will it go in future?• Key questions to be answered- this is where UVM

Recycling needs help from students & researchers!!

“What IS the highest, best use for our waste veg oil?“What other opportunities are out there?”

For example: – Vegawatt generator (burn it to make 5KW of electricity??)– Bio-fuel furnace (to heat some space like a greenhouse or garage? ?)– Bio-fuel boiler (to power some equipment or make steam??)– SVO vehicle (a student-run shuttle van using straight veg oil??)– Biodiesel production (does UVM want to get into this??)– Some other local use: heating vs. transportation vs. electricity?

Thoughts? Questions?

~THANK YOU~