I came across an interesting article 2 days ago in the Chicago Tribune, titled "Turning up the heat on recycled fuels". The article concerns Ed Rich, a Culvers franchise owner; using old French fry grease to heat the store's hot water system. A Google search turned up another two similar (but different articles) on Ed Rich's hot water heater. You should read both articles if for no other reason to see the difference that different reporters & editors make to a story.
According to the article there are 925,000 restaurants in the United States. That's a lot of French fries, and a lot of potential energy. Just where besides our waist is all that potential going to go.
Link http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/...
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http://news.tradingcharts.com/...
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Until now, the restaurant had to pay someone to pick up the 40 or so gallons of used oil it generated each week.
A unique water heater was designed and made by the company for Rich. It was installed in his restaurant a month ago and it is doing what is supposed to do: heating water for washing dishes, utensils and the water supply in restrooms.
"It's the first of its kind in the country. It's a prototype that could be used by other restaurants," said Rich with obvious pride in the $11,000 unit.
"We should be able to recoup the investment in three years," he said.........
Craig Culver, co-founder of the Culver's restaurant chain, heaped praise on Rich for his pioneering spirit.
"We're here to give him and his wife support. I hope similar units will be put into our other restaurants," Culver said.
Culver, who started working in the family food business when he was 11, recalls someone would pay his mother a few dimes for collecting used oil, referred to as "grease" in those days.
Now, it's the other way around: paying someone for hauling it away.
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Barbara Behling, spokeswoman for Culver's corporate office in Prairie du Sac, Wis.
"With the recent energy costs skyrocketing, we've had people offer to pay for used oil," she said. If it becomes valuable, it could alter the equation for how much money the oil burner saves.
Culver's, which runs several corporate cars and trucks on biodiesel made from cooking oil, is waiting to find out how well the Pleasant Prairie system works before deciding whether to recommend it to all franchisees, Behling said. There is no timetable, she said, but "if in six months it's better than sliced bread, we'll give the green light much faster."
So recently companies have stopped charging and started hauling away the grease in exchange for the grease. Meaning for free. That presents savings for Rich on the expense side of his business but will lengthen the payback time for the new boiler.
Rich will get one time rebates from the State of Wisconsin, that will defray the cost of the boiler.
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Like most people, Rich has no clue how much hot water he actually uses, but based on early results on natural-gas use, he figures he can save thousands of dollars a year while eliminating the hassle of storing barrels of old grease behind the restaurant....
"It is a novel idea using biofuels to produce heat to use in your restaurant, but I think if this catches on, it can gain some momentum and become standard practice in the industry," said Matthew Matenaer of Focus on Energy, a state-funded Wisconsin group that promotes energy conservation.
Focus on Energy is helping Rich study the system to find out precisely how much water he uses and how much gas he saves. When the data are in, the group can decide to whom to recommend the system and how much of a credit the state should offer based on a formula that awards a one-time rebate of 30 cents per therm saved in a year.
It's too early to say how many therms the grease-burner might save, Matenaer said.
Still Rich's franchise must be outlaying more than $3670/yr in hot water heating alone.
I am willing to state first that I may be screwing up this calculation & it is based on a chart from WPS the provider of Natural Gas in that Area. I am using $3670 & WPS's second to last tier, 20,000 -200,000 Therms but I'm getting around 2,345 Therms used at $.79/Therm with 7% taxes and $130/month delivery charges, just for the Hot water heater.
Now In the days of Enron, I owned an Old brick Chicago 3 flat, with old leaky windows, central steam heat and centralized hot water heating. I had a tenant that use to crank up the heat on me, & open the windows for fresh air & take showers that lasted for days. I managed to finish the heating season with less Terms used & less $ out. So I'm suspect that he is outlaying that much on Hot Water heating alone. Does anyone know what the outlay in Therms or dollars a fast food restaurant uses for it's Hot water heating?
Or Gas bill in general?
http://news.tradingcharts.com/...
"We're at a point where we can't afford to throw away energy," said Rebecca Faas, president of INOV8, which designed and installed Rich's system. "There are something like 925,000 restaurants in the U.S., and if we could heat all their water with renewables, just think what that could save."......
Harry Foust, INOV8 founder, who developed the prototype used in the Culver's hopes that more restaurants will use his water heater as a way of recycling the waste and turning it into fuel.
"It eliminates the disposal problem and turn it into energy. It's a cost-saving proposition," said Foust, 56, an alumnus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he studied mechanical engineering.
Foust who holds two patents on the burner in the water heater said before the waste oil is turned into fuel, it has to be atomized and fuel-injected into the burner. The oil, he said, has to be filtered with bits, say, French fries, removed.
Foust said he has sold thousands of his water heaters using crankcase oil as fuel to the automotive industry. They are used mostly by garage owners for heating garages.
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So for him and his company, restaurants are virgin territory for his new heater.
Now please look at my sig line, so you know that I understand that a Confusion of Means & Perfection of Goals is not what I am looking for. I want to know is this idea a best use, good use or Ok use of Ed Rich's money and his Waste Oil.
Culvers is using Biodiesel for some/all of their corporate fleet; is the use of old cooking oil to heat water a most efficient use of the technology available. Or should they be using Tank less hot water heating systems for their water, and the used oil for the trucks? Unfortunately there is not enough information in the articles to figure this out, but the cheapest price for Midwest Diesel this week is $2.78, relatively unchanged from this time last year. Multiply that by 40 gals a week is $5,782.40 for the year.
At $3.16, year's high, the value is $6,572.80 for the year.
Thankfully, Ed Rich took $11,000 and is making a difference. Both He and Culvers are finding out right now about the profitability of Ed Rich's idea, & helping Save the world one Butterburger*tm with fries at a time. I'll just take mine to go.
The reference Links:
http://www.wisconsinpublicservice.com/...
http://www.inov8-intl.com/...
http://www.rinnai.us/...
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/...