Solving a Sticky Dilemma in Gadsden

Gadsden city officials recently joined a growing number of Alabama municipalities challenging the trite old saying that “you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.”

Actually, you can, if this sow’s ear happens to be used cooking oil.

Used cooking oil has been a bane for many Alabama communities, especially in cases where small restaurants and similar types of businesses can’t afford to pay a company to haul it away. Some of this used oil ends up clogging sewage lines or adding further strain on overburdened landfills.

But with help from the Alabama Cooperative Extension System and Auburn University’s Center for Bioenergy and Bioproducts, a facet of the Natural Resources Management and Development Institute, Gadsden now has found a way to turn this perennial problem into an asset.

How? By transforming this oil into fuel for city vehicles using a biodiesel reactor.

“First, it helps reduce dependence on foreign oil,” says Mark Hall, an Alabama Cooperative Extension System renewable energy specialist who is coordinating the project. “But more importantly it will save the city of Gadsden money in fuel costs and sewer improvements.”

Hall says the change also will improve sewer efficiency by reducing waste oil blockages — something that the city’s water treatment workers find especially exciting.

“They see the benefit of not having to dig up clogged sewer lines,” Hall says. “It’s solving a real environmental problem for the city and giving local residents opportunities to participate in this solution.”

It’s also putting Gadsden, along with a handful of other Alabama municipalities, on the road toward a cleaner environment.

“Increasing fuel costs have made us even more conscious of what it costs to keep our fleet operating,” says Gadsden Mayor Sherman Guyton.

At a production rate of only 50 gallons of biodiesel a day, Guyton doesn’t expect to see drastic reduction in fuel costs. But he still expects the city will benefit in other ways, including a cleaner environment.

Guyton is calling on citizens and businesses alike to take part in this new effort. The city has set up recycling containers at community centers throughout the city to make it easier for citizens to contribute used oil.

“They can drop off a full jug and pick up an empty one at any of our community centers,” he says.

Restaurants and other businesses each will be equipped with a 50-gallon drum into which they can deposit used oil — drums that then can be picked up by city crews when they are full. Full drums will replaced with empty ones at each visit so that these businesses always will have a used oil receptacle available.

NRMDI Executive Director Larry Fillmer says the partnership between Auburn University and Gadsden is a critical link in Auburn’s ongoing effort to broaden the visibility of biofuels throughout the state.

“We sincerely appreciate the support and leadership of the mayor, city leaders and the city of Gadsden are providing for this important program,” says Fillmer, who also believes the knowledge gained from this project will help the Institute undertake similar projects throughout the state.

Posted by Jim Langcuster at March 12, 2008 04:39 PM