Used cooking oil is as good as gold

[Bdog]

http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/04/06/19/bus_grease001.cfm

MINDEN, Nev. - Most Wednesdays by 7:30 a.m., Patti Bently and Ken Waldram are heading north on U.S. 395 from Bently Agrowdynamics in Minden to collect used cooking oil - the stuff that restaurants discard after you've had it your way with french fries and bacon.

Ten stops are on their route. On a typical run, they collect a half-dozen 55-gallon drums of used oil.

Bently raps the side of a drum with her knuckles. If it sounds full, she pulls on a pair of green gloves, checks the contents and signals to Waldram to bring a dolly to remove the drum and to leave a clean container for the next week.

The trip takes about three hours as they stop at establishments in Carson City, Stateline and the Minden-Gardnerville area. They hope to add more when the company owned by Minden businessman and inventor Don Bently turns the fat or vegetable oil into biodiesel fuels.

As the cost of petroleum fuel skyrockets, Don Bently believes the market for biodiesel fuel will grow.

He's investing $1.2 million in a plant he hopes in a year will produce 300,000 gallons of biodiesel for use in his extensive ranching operations and eventual sale to the public.

[Dogmudgeon]

1. I'm soaking in it!

:evilgrin:

--bkl

[aquart]

2. Good, because over-reused cooking oil is bad for your health.

<http://www.healthandage.com/PHome/gm=6!gid1=5328>

"People who use a lot of olive oil - which can be expensive - sometimes use an oil 'bath' or deep fryer to fry certain goods. But when the oil is heated, it changes its chemical composition and creates substances called polymers and polar compounds which seem to raise blood pressure. In fact, re-heating olive oil more than twice probably cancels out all its health benefits. If you want to fry foods in oil and can't afford fresh olive oil each time, it may be better to mix it with a cheaper vegetable oil but do not re-heat it."

[NashVegas]

5. Who The Deep Fries With Olive Oil?

Peanut oil is used most often specifically because it can be reheated more than other oils without going bad.

[arwalden]

3. Do These Restaurants Give Them The Used Oil For Free?

If so, that's a great source of raw material... for now. How long before the restaurants realize that what they are giving to the oil recyclers is actually WORTH something? I imagine it won't be long before they start requesting a courtesy-fee for providing them with the materials they need.

I think this is a great story, Bdog! I love stuff like this. One day, this will be such an everyday occurrence that it won't be newsworthy anymore.

-- Allen

[Bdog]

4. EU: Biodiesel solution for animal by-products that could spread BSE or CJD

http://www.just-food.com/news_detail.asp?art=57884
A specialist committee of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has declared that manufacturing biodiesel is a safe way of disposing of so-called category 1 animal by-products, that could spread BSE or CJD.

EFSA’s panel on biological hazards has concluded that because the material at the start of the production process is rendered and treated at 133Celsius for 20 minutes, “it may be concluded that the resulting biodiesel (and by-products) do not carry a TSE risk.”