JAN 06

Sometimes I'm shocked that these things aren't already being done. I mean, almost every restaurant in the world has a dumpster filled with fuel in the back...why not just put a generator there instead! Vegawatt, a Massachusetts-based company, is doing just that. They've created a fry-oil generator that deals with the waste while producing energy.

They've just turned on their first system at a Boston-area restaurant, and it seems to be working like a charm. The system is smaller than a conventional grease dumpster, and consumes 100% of the waste oil produced by Finz Seafood and Grill. Of course, the maximum 6 kW that it produces reduces the restaurant's monthly bill by about $800 (or about 15%.)

The system could be scaled up, but then there wouldn't be any grease to power it, and it wouldn't save anyone money. Vegawatt is looking into reducing electricity bills further by creating hot water with the device as well.

Finz is leasing the device for about $400, so it saves them a total of $400 a month. As you might expect, Vegawatt is expecting to expand.

They're about to close their first round of funding and, with that, they'll be starting up larger operations serving restaurants throughout America.

Via CNet GreenTech

Comments (8)

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About time!
written by Bill Martin, January 06, 2009

It's about time restaurants started doing something useful with their waste. This is a great idea. There's a pizza (and other greasy foods) type restaurant in Madison, WI that delivers called The Roman Candle. They use their waste oil to power their cars. When I last lived there 2 years or so ago they had about 3 or 4 cars, all small VW deisel powered cars that they switched to run on waste fuel and tadaaa! Deliveries now cost them nothing in fuel consumption. It was great when the fuel prices was crazy stupid high.

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written by Tom, January 06, 2009

This sounds great. I read about some people in California using their local restaurants' oil to power their cars, but they got into trouble because they didn't have permits to transport oil. Sounded a little weird, but I'm glad to read that people are finding other practical ways to put the leftover oil to good use.

www.worththeenergy.wordpress.com

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no more biodiesel?
written by Alex, January 07, 2009

This is a great idea for the day when we're all driving electric cars. Until then, however, turning that oil into biodiesel is a far more valuable use for a liquid fuel.

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byproducts?
written by hyperspaced, January 07, 2009

What are the byproducts of waste-oil burning? Just fried-potatoe smell or something more, perhaps dangerous?

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Why not use this for auto shops?
written by Shadowspawn, January 07, 2009

Just sayin, something like this:
http://www.cleanburn.com/advantage/
It works for heating and in shops in the north-east it makes sense.
For the south, it could be used for generation for A/C in the customer areas, or the compressors, etc.

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Honestly...
written by MeredithC, January 07, 2009

They should have started this a long time ago. I mean some people were utilizing restaurant fry oil for biodiesel, but that was barely anyone. Hopefully, this will become more widespread, and the idea of recycling will spread with it.

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Marvellous!
written by Chris.W., January 07, 2009

That would be a good idea for powering cars, although I remember hearing about a smaller version of this available in Britain where you effectively make your own fuel. You buy a machine for about £2'000 and you put chip (or fries as you call it) fat in and it'll convert it to biodiesel. Mileage costs this way end up being less than 20p (ish per mile) which in England is great!

Except you need to become good friends with the chip shop owner to get a deal out of it.

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indeed, indeed!
written by Krista, January 07, 2009

As many have already stated, this would be a tremendous idea! It is people like you, with your state of mind, who needs to be running restaurants and places like such. As for the whole powering cars thing, as great and brilliant as it sounds...I don't see people actually acting upon it. America is full of a lot of stubborn people. Other than that, great article and idea. I really hope something becomes out of this.

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