- Number 310 |
- April 26, 2010
INL research helps turn waste grease to fuel
INL technology helps produce
high quality biodiesel (right)
from oils contained in
municipal waste water,
restaurant grease traps
and other sources (left).
While oil companies drill ever deeper for increasingly hard-to-find petroleum, research by chemists at DOE's Idaho National Laboratory is helping tap legions of mini-gushers right on the surface. Many businesses, such as restaurants and potato processing plants, produce loads of waste grease. Thanks in part to some INL-developed techniques, a company called BioFuelBox is converting this gunk to high-quality biodiesel. Waste-grease biodiesel is socially and environmentally responsible: it has the lowest carbon footprint of any transportation fuel, and producing it doesn’t cause the displacement of food crops or the destruction of tropical forests. BioFuelBox already has one plant up and running, with many more on the way.
[Mike Wall, 208.526.0490,
michael.wall@inl.gov]
