San Francisco Launches First City-Wide Program to Collect FOG for Biodiesel
30 November 2007
San Francisco, California, known for its atmospheric fog, recently launched the nation’s first citywide program to collect fats, oil and grease (FOG) as a feedstock for biodiesel for use in the city fleet.
SFGreasecycle is a program that was developed by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) as a sustainable alternative to combat sewer blockages caused in part by excess cooking oils and fats discharged down drains from restaurants and homes. Each year, the SFPUC estimates that 50% of sewer emergency calls are related to backups caused by grease blockages costing their ratepayers $3.5 million a year in repairs.
We’re taking a serious City problem and using the best available technology to save our ratepayers’ money and do something good for the environment. For every 5 gallons of grease we collect and keep out of our sewers, we displace 5 gallons of petroleum diesel. That is a net 100 pound reduction in carbon emission.
—SFPUC General Manager Susan Leal
San Francisco has a City fleet of more than 1,600 diesel vehicles. In 2006, Mayor Newsom signed an executive directive mandating that the entire city fleet be converted by December 31, 2007. The City is currently on pace to meet that goal. Initially, biodiesel for the City fleet will be purchased through an existing city contract, with the future plan to procure all biodiesel generated from San Francisco’s restaurant waste oil stream.
Recycled FOG from San Francisco restaurants is estimated to generate 1.5 million gallons of biofuel each year.
Now that's an angle I had not thought of before: Recycling restaurant oil reduces sewer problems. If a moderately successful recycling program eliminates half the expense caused by such clogs (by reducing their frequency), then it makes perfect sense for the utilities commission to subsidize it, in some amount not to exceed $1.75m, or slightly above $1 per gallon, given the estimated yield noted at the end of the article. If the program eliminates all clogs, they should consider a subsidy of up to $2.25 per gallon or so.
This wouldn't even be an "evil," "market distorting" subsidy either, unlike the corn-ethanol subsidy, which could reasonably earn such epithets. Here, the sewer commission would be paying money to avoid or solve a problem (clogged sewers), in amounts which (as we've laid down by specification) don't exceed the cost of the current solution to the problem. Chances are, they'll save some money.
I don't know what the pump price of diesel is in the Bay Area, or if the public fleet pays taxes on the diesel it burns, or whether they would have to send in a separate tax check if they burned fuel that was not pre-taxed. But assuming a worst-case scenario on these questions, the public fleet should be willing to pay $2 per gallon for ready-to-burn waste-oil fuel (i.e. pump prices are about $3/gal, and the last dollar is tax, and the public fleet would have to pay that separately if not paid at the pump), and adding a perhaps $1 sewer subsidy to that, you get $3/gal net to the producer, which is a substantial premium over the wholesale pre-tax price of diesel fuel, which means that the higher cost structure here (having to send around a collection truck to each restaurant to siphon off the oil every week) could well be supported.
Posted by: NBK-Boston | 30 November 2007 at 03:05 AM
The pump price of diesel in the Bay area was substantially above $3.00/gallon as of last May ($3.25, IIRC). I'm sure it's higher now; the cheapest I see here in SE Michigan is $3.599.
Posted by: Engineer-Poet | 30 November 2007 at 07:14 AM
NBK:
Discharge of spent oil and grease from commercial kitchens into sewage systems was restricted many years ago in most municipalities. The reason is clogging of sewage pipes and, even more important, that excess oil and grease in sewage severely impede biological treatment of sewage on municipal STP. There are plenty O&G collection and recycling programs.
Arguably, conversion of waste O&G into diesel fuel makes much more sense than, say, to combust it into cement kilns or industrial steam boilers.
Posted by: Andrey | 30 November 2007 at 11:01 AM
I remember seeing a news program about this problem and thought that a diversion program to use garbage fats would be a good idea. In my city, restaurants actually pay extra to get rid of this stuff so it doesn't surprise me that some would try to "flush" it down as a solution. Collecting it for biodiesel production makes way more sense and in fact lower overall total costs.
Posted by: aym | 30 November 2007 at 11:09 AM
This is happening in a US city meaning it's part of the hopeless attempt to stave off the inevitable demise. Accept green defeat caused by americans.
Posted by: Sulleny | 01 December 2007 at 10:59 AM