| Tuesday, September 28, 2010 |
| Biodiesel |
The poetic justice is almost too much.
Steve Richter, who culls used fry oil from falafel houses and Japanese restaurants in Philadelphia and New Jersey (tip: Japanese restaurants end with cleaner oil than fry joints start with), sails oil tankers for a living. Is it the equivalent to a carbon offset? Say a conscience offset? I'm sure Steve would have a thoughtful answer to this, but I'm not going to call and put him on the spot.
I've witnessed a couple biodiesel operations. Most appear dirtier than a used car mechanics garage. Congealing oil, leftover kerosene in coffee cans, rusted-out 50-gallon tanks.
Steve, through his genius, has managed to set up the cleanest, most efficient operation I've ever seen in a space the size of a garage. Well, it's in a garage. He has built a loftspace for the the filtered down oil, with a series of valves and strainers to get the biodiesel down to five microns.
Steve has contacted the state of Pennsylvania, in earnest hopes of paying his road taxes. They don't know where to start with him. Indeed, they can't even wrap their head around his operation, and so ignore him.
Filling up is about as enjoyable as it gets. Pull up next to the garage, unload the five Sun & Earth containers, and start fillin 'em up. Steve has his trusty pink rag on hand to take care of any overflow. We use a funnel - and I consistently overestimate what the tank will hold. I take it down to empty and trust that the 26.5 gallon tank can take another twenty - not so. The nice thing is biodiesel is a solvent - so it's not the worst thing to have spill on the sidewalk.
At a recently bachelor party I ran into a guy working for the Department of Energy. Obama had asked him to look into the long-term possibilities of biodiesel. His research showed him that investment into biodiesel wasn't feasible; the creation of infrastructure, a biodiesel factory, shipment of raw materials, distribution, would not be practical on a large scale.
At the time, I had four five-gallon containers of bio swishing around in the bed of the GMC. I took him outside and had him smell the stuff, look at it, its straw-colored beauty, Rumpelstiltskin's liquid dream.
"Yeah, that's a pretty small-minded view," I said (it was a bachelor party, I had had a few too many).
"What about encouraging grass-roots growth that's already happening?"
I told him about Greensgrow in Philadelphia and their biodiesel operation, Steve Richter, and other local outfits. Why not, instead of using the old top-down model, instead empower community leaders to build smaller, more efficient biodiesel factories? Almost like a cottage industry.
He said it was a brilliant idea, that he'd bring it up at the next meeting. I think he was pretty drunk too.
For now, I'm quite content supporting the good work Steve does. He does it well, it's enjoyable to get fuel, and his stories of operating oil tankers make it all worth it.
filling bucket |
posted by Brendan Jones @ 8:49 AM   |
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| A blog addressing the importance of re-using material, and building with existing structures. A strong emphasis on architectural salvage, as well as the people that make the difficult work possible. |
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Name: Brendan Jones
Home: Philadelphia, PA, United States
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Greensaw is dedicated to using architectural salvage to enhance modern living spaces. We respect history, our environment, and the material with which we work. We recognize our clients as partners in the process of using old to build new. |
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