Did you know that you can recycle your used oil to make renewable biofuel?
If you’re a restaurant owner, you can potentially produce clean, efficient, and sustainable biofuel when you partner with us at Grease Cycle. We are an innovative and environmentally friendly company that offers ways for businesses to recycle their used cooking oil. Helping both the planet and your bottom line.
What is Biofuel?
Biofuel, also known as biodiesel, is a completely renewable, clean energy source made from used cooking oil, animal fats, and other types of recycled oil. Biofuel is a renewable resource that has huge potential. All you need to turn oil into fuel is some used animal fat, bacon grease, vegetable oil, or any kitchen grease and a simple chemical reaction.
How Does Grease Cycle Turn Kitchen Grease Into Biofuel?
Do you want to know how we can turn your used grease into biofuel? The process includes the following:
Collecting Used Cooking Oil
The process of converting kitchen grease into biofuel starts with collecting the used cooking oil. Restaurant owners most likely have a large amount of used cooking oil from your daily operations. In fact, local restaurants’ commercial fryers, food processors, and any business that serve food are the largest source of used cooking oil that can be converted into biofuel.
The process for collecting used cooking oil is quite simple. As a food business owner, you can chat with one of Grease Cycle’s relationship managers and choose from a variety of oil collection containers. We offer a wide range of oil containers, including installed units and theft-resistant bins, designed to suit your unique and specific needs.
After communicating with a Grease Cycle manager, you need to schedule the delivery of your container. As soon as you receive your Grease Cycle container, you can then simply deposit your waste oil into the container and one of our drivers will collect the oil.
The schedule of oil collection is carefully calculated to ensure that it will maintain its quality. You will then receive generous compensation for the used cooking oil.
Purification and Refinement
Once the oil is collected, the next step in this process is purification and refinement. Typically, used oil is full of impurities, such as meat scraps, breading crumbs, leftovers, and even water. We need to filter out these contaminants to prevent them from interfering with the conversion process.
Keep in mind that used cooking oil contains a high amount of free fatty acids. When cooking oil is heated and used repeatedly, the high heat will break down the molecules. This results in detached fatty acid particles from the rest of the molecule, causing them to start floating freely.
Since free fatty acids cannot be converted into biofuel, they need to be filtered thoroughly. After filtering, the kitchen grease collected from a grease trap, is then pre-treated to make these free fatty acids usable, so it can be converted into biofuel.
Understanding the Chemical Process
It’s important to note that used cooking oil is not safe to be used as fuel by itself. To make it a safe fuel, used kitchen grease or cooking oil should go through a chemical process referred to as transesterification.
Transesterification is the chemical process that converts used oil into a safe fuel. During this process, an ester is combined with alcohol. When transforming used cooking oil into biodiesel, the “ester” is waste oil or kitchen grease. This is combined with methyl alcohol or methanol.
To kickstart a chemical reaction, we usually add a small amount of catalyst (typically sodium chloride) to the ester and alcohol mix. The end results are methyl ester, which is the technical term used for biodiesel fuel, and glycerin.
After the transesterification process is complete, the biofuel is ready to use. Glycerin is separated for use as an ingredient in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and other cleaning products. Biodiesel, on the other hand, is locally distributed for use in vehicles, farm equipment, machinery, and other machines that use fuel.
Why Choose Grease Cycle
One of the best things about Grease Cycle is that we offer a wide variety of secure, convenient, and complimentary oil containers.
You can choose from lockable metal drums with an optional dolly, a 215-gallon low-profile bin, a 125-gallon heat-resistant and high-strength plastic bin, and a 300-gallon metal bin. You can also choose a 100-gallon metal box or plumbed-in units.
At Grease Cycle, our experts have perfected our routing system to ensure that whatever container you choose will not overflow. In addition, we employ dedicated regional service managers that provide container maintenance services, including repairs, theft prevention, and maintaining the cleanliness and sanitation of the containers.
When you partner with Grease Cycle, you will enjoy professional service. We employ trained technicians who have years of experience and are capable of providing high-quality service. We will service your restaurant at your convenience, without interrupting any of your operations.
Additionally, our company is environmentally friendly. We refine your used kitchen grease and use it as feed for the biofuel industry. You will not only make money from your waste oil, but you're partnering with a company that genuinely cares for the environment.
What’s more, we also offer the option to donate your compensation checks directly to the local public school system or the Wounded Warriors Project. You will not only have the opportunity to turn waste oil into clean fuel, but you are also donating to a good cause.
Don’t Let Your Used Cooking Oil Go to Waste—Switch to Biofuel Now
As mentioned, we only need a simple chemical process in order to transform kitchen grease and used cooking oil into clean, sustainable fuel.
Biofuel is the better option compared to traditional diesel fuel because it reduces greenhouse gases, unhealthy air pollution, smog, and other waste materials. On top of this, biofuel is renewable, which is a great way to save energy.