Talladega Public Works Director James Swinford recently proposed a grease recycling/biodeisel manufacturing process that would relieve problems with grease plugging city sewers and causing spills, save money on fuel costs and provide environmental benefits. The council has not acted on the proposal yet, pending estimates of start-up costs and other factors, but if the city of Daphne, which Swinford based his proposal on, is any indication, Talladega will be looking at minimal cost and tremendous potential return.The Daphne operation is run by Rob McElroy, general manager of the Daphne Utilities System. “We just kind of stumbled into it,” McElroy explained. “We had been struggling with sewer spills for a long time, mostly because of oil and grease building up inside sewer lines. So rather than just hiring more people to run around trying to fix these problems as they occurred, we decided to attack the problem at the source.”
Daphne has a population of about 18,000 people, which is roughly equivalent to Talladega’s. “If every home in Daphne put just one teaspoon full of oil per day down a drain, it would be the equivalent of dumping seven 55 gallon drums per month into the sewer system,” McElroy explained. “People think they don’t dump any grease, but think about it. Say you’ve just cooked up some fish with a little lemon-butter sauce. You put your plate in the sink in some hot, soapy water, but the grease doesn’t just go away. It goes down the drain, into the sewer. And no southerner would ever think of cooking green beans without putting half a cup of bacon grease in there with them. Lots of people think it’s okay just to flush that down the (sink) after you drain the beans out, but that liquid grease thickens and solidifies when it hits the cool water, and that can plug up sewer lines. But if you don’t dump it down the drain, what do you do with it?” he asked rhetorically.
The program began with a public education campaign, then the recycling operation.
The initial cost for the recycling program was about $3,000, McElroy said. “We started out with 10 or 12 recycling stations made of plywood and two-by-fours at a cost of about $175 each, and then bought sealable recycling jugs at a cost of about $1 each, and made them free to the public.
Three years later, there are now about 20 recycling stations in Daphne in high traffic areas, such as Wal-Mart, common areas of apartment complexes, grocery stores, gas stations and other easily accessible locations.
“You keep the jug under your sink, and pour any used grease you might have into it. When you fill it up, you take it to the nearest recycling station, drop it off and get a new jug. The lid seals tight, so there’s no smell or anything.”
Collections in Daphne are now up to 400 to 500 gallons per month, “and more after Thanksgiving, when lots of people are frying turkeys,” McElroy said. “Over the same three years, we’ve increased sewer flow and had a 40 percent drop in sewer spills and sewage backing up into manholes. So the more oil that’s turned in, the fewer spills, the lower the operating costs and less need for rate increases.”
The biodiesel program evolved a little later than the recycling program, McElroy continued. “We were taking the oil people dropped off and trucking it out to a rendering plant in Birmingham. Then we got a vendor who was experimenting making biodiesel at home. He told us we could use the recycled grease as fuel, so we took some used 55-gallon drums, blending sticks and belt heaters. We found we make diesel fuel at a cost of about $1 per gallon, then burn it in our trucks. And it burns a lot cleaner than diesel, too.”
The next phase was to build a much larger plant. “We got some old propane tanks from another vendor for that,” McElroy said. “They weren’t suitable for pressurized gas any more, but they worked fine for what we needed. So we welded some legs on them and added some old water heater elements. That phase probably cost us a total of a couple of thousand dollars, and allowed us to make about 1,000 gallons of fuel every 24 hours. We’re up to two 1,500 gallon tanks now, which is probably too much, since we only use about 1,500 gallons per month.”
The next phase will likely be much smaller.
McElroy said the Daphne Utilities Department didn’t want to get into competition with the commercial grease haulers, so generally they only use grease collected from residents. “We do have a few restaurants that we have agreements with if donations get low,” he said. “I have no idea why, but grease from Asian restaurants works particularly well. But if we’re short, we’ll call up one of the restaurants we work with, ask if they want to donate, drive by and pump it straight into the truck.”
McElroy said the fuel manufactured in his department is not sold to anyone else (“We don’t want to have to worry about taxes and all of that”) and, with one notable exception, is not utilized outside the utilities department.
“We’re governed by an independent board,” he said, “but we are anticipating sort of a sister program with the city’s recycling truck. People can put their grease jugs out with their curbside recycling bin, and the truck will pick it up and give you a new one. But the recycling truck also runs on biodiesel.”
Aside from the city recycling truck, the utilities department is currently running 18 trucks and pieces of heavy equipment, out of about 60, on the homemade fuel. “I’m blessed with a fairly new fleet of vehicles, but as they age, I’m planning to replace more and more vehicles with diesel, so we can save even more.”
McElroy didn’t have a precise figure for reduced fuel costs, but estimated the entire program, including fewer sewer spills and more efficient use of sewer crews, at about $10,000 per year. “If we used more, I can easily see that figure going up to $12,000 per year or more.”
The potential benefit in Talladega could be even greater.
“There are just a multitude of maybes,” city manager Sue Horn said. “We don’t have a lot of diesel vehicles right now, probably 10 to 15, mostly larger ones in Community Appearance, Public Works and the Fire Department. Absolute ballpark, I’d say 10 to 15. But we could also make reciprocal agreements with the county, and the city and county school systems. We’re not looking for a business venture here, but there are a lot of other agencies we could furnish this to,” Horn said.
Horn added that current available technology might make a system in Talladega even simpler and less expensive than the Daphne model. “I understand there’s a better way of doing it now, with self-contained units that handle everything in one place. I’ve got a package sitting on my desk, but I haven’t read it yet.”
Swinford was out of town most of the week and not immediately available for comment.
