An In-Depth Look at Our Process, Part 1

In a previous post I listed the three steps in our program, and here I will go in much more detail as to how the steps work, what our tools are, why they were invented, and what exactly composting even is.

Step Number One

Our first step requires used cooking oil.  This oil is going to be generously supplied by the Bergen Cafeteria here on campus.  This oil is used often in kitchens as it can boil as hot as 220 C, while water maxes out at 100 C.  Oil also adds flavour to foods like french fries and chicken fingers, which are often sold at our cafeteria.  After the oil is used for food, it is often thrown away as it becomes full of particles of the food it was used to cook and becomes unclean.  There are over 16,000 students at Bergen, if all of them wanted fries for lunch, we would end up throwing away almost 100 liters of used oil at the end of the day.

These look disgusting, but are they useful?
Via Northwest VT Solid Waste Management District

This cooking oil, rather than being thrown away and potentially polluting the environment, can be used in a way that can end up helping the environment rather than damaging it.

Enter an invention dubbed "The VegaWatt."  This huge machine was invented by a man named James Peret, who noticed how restaurants paid about 100 dollars a month for companies to haul away their used oil in order for it to be properly disposed.  Peret decided that he had a great idea to both make money and reduce waste: turn all that oil into an energy source.

The CEO and founder of Owl Power Company, James Peret.
Picture via his Twitter

Due to VegaWatt still having a pending patent, the specifics of the process is a closely guarded secret, other than the fact that it has a four step process of sterilization and filtering.  However, in an interview with NPR radio, Peret gives a summery of how it works, "[The VegaWatt] filters out all of the food crumbs... ...It heats it up to a point where the engine, which is a standard diesel engine or an industrial diesel engine, can utilize the oil.  [The] diesel engine turns a generator head, which produces electricity..."

A simple diagram showing the process
Via Popular Science

Though originally designed specifically for use in restaurants to reduce their electricity and hot water bills, we will be using it to power our second step in our process.
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Today Professor Araya and I (Mallory,) took a look at the VegaWatt outside.  It is a large machine that is not quite ready to be used yet, but I could tell that it was quite complex.  There is a pipe installed in the wall that leads to a vat where the cooking staff with dump their used oil, and on the other side is where our second machine will be connected in order to give it power.  The place where the staff will dump the oil is located up the hill from the VegaWatt itself.

This is our VegaWatt, the pipe on the right is where the oil will be dumped in.
Picture taken by Mallory

Here is the drum that the oil will be dumped into.

This will be connected to a pipe

Eventually this pipe will be connected to the piece shown above, the pipe leads to the VegaWatt.

Sources:

Mone, Gregory. “Invention Awards: A Generator That Runs on Kitchen Grease.” Popular Science, Popular Science, 28 May 2009, 

    www.popsci.com/environment/article/2009-05/grease-lighting.

Peret, James. “James Peret (@Peretj) on Twitter.” Twitter, Twitter, twitter.com/peretj.

Raz, Guy. “Great Inventions Of 2009: The Vegawatt.” NPR, NPR, 27 Dec. 2009, www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121954332.

“We Take Used Cooking Oil!” Northwest VT Solid Waste Management District, 29 Oct. 2015, nwswd.org/2015/10/veggie-oil/.