Turning “Funny Fuels” into Energy Savings

Some of the strangest things can be converted into alternative fuels to save on energy costs. Just ask Shannon Vinyard, president of Vinyard Technology in Hartford.

Vinyard is one of a growing number of techno-pioneers who are developing alternatives to conventional fossil fuel-burning technology. Vinyard was busy yesterday showing farmers and business operators throughout the Wiregrass how a generator modified to run off waste cooking oil could be used to generate electrical power and, in the process, supplement energy needs --- one of several technologies he’s developed to run off food by-products and other alternative fuels.

WTVM news reporter Brock Parker reports that interest in these new fuels already appears to have sparked the beginning of biofuel economy in the Wiregrass. People already are taking used cooking oil to a local plant, Helms Commodities, Inc. in Slocumb, where it’s refined into a substance suitable for burning.

The refined oil then is delivered to Vinyard Technology to power the modified generator.

Parker reports that it costs as much as $100,000 a year in utility bills to heat a single poultry house. Using a biofuel source instead would cost next to nothing.

Posted by Jim Langcuster at November 11, 2005 08:47 AM | TrackBack