Gadsden Kicks Off Waste to Fuel Program

On Friday, March 7th, the City of Gadsden officially launched its Waste to Fuel Program with a press conference featuring Greg Noah, Gadsden’s Fleet Management Superintendent, Gadsden Mayor Sherman Guyton and Larry Fillmer, Executive Director of Auburn University’s Natural Resources Management & Development Institute.

Andy Powell covered the event for the Gadsden Times.  Check out his story below:

Biodiesel gives quick return on investment

By Andy Powell, Times Staff Writer
Published March 8, 2008

An Auburn University official said Friday he hopes the city of Gadsden’s biodiesel program will become a “playbook” for other cities to follow to adopt similar programs.

And payback in fuel cost savings is expected to take less than a year for cities that adopt similar programs, according to the Alabama Clean Fuel Coalition.

Larry Fillmer, executive director for the Natural Resource Management and Development Institute at Auburn, said at a press conference here that Auburn partnered with the city of Gadsden and the Gadsden Waterworks and Sewer Board on the program to recycle cooking oil into biodiesel fuel as a way to encourage other cities to adopt the program.

The city already has begun producing fuel, which can be run in diesel engines, said Greg Noah, the city’s fleet management superintendent. He said most of the fuel will be used in the department’s fleet vehicles but some has been used in city trolleys and to operate a bulldozer. The city expects to save about $14,000 a year in fuel costs. The equipment can produce about 55 gallons of fuel in eight hours. The process adds methanol and lye to the cooking oil to produce the biodiesel fuel.

Gadsden Mayor Sherman Guyton said he was pleased Auburn had supplied the equipment for the project and that Gadsden is one of the first cities in the country to have such a program. He said he hopes the program will be a “model” for other cities to adopt.

Noah said since the program was announced, the city has received oil from nursing homes, restaurants and from Camp Sumatanga. Noah said residents can pick up jugs from recreation centers, the water board and the fleet management building on Chestnut Street. Drums are available for businesses.

The project will help save the city money, will keep grease from going into the sewer system, which can cause clogs, and is “environmentally sound,” Fillmer said.

“One of the really important things we hope to be able to obtain out of the work here with the city of Gadsden and you folks is the opportunity to create a playbook for other municipalities around the state who may have interest in undertaking similar projects,” Fillmer said.

He said an important part of the program here is to document the processes used and to document the cost to be able to give that information to other cities.

Fillmer said Auburn has been contacted by about half a dozen cities in the state about a biodiesel program.

Auburn University is collecting cooking oil on campus and using it to produce fuel, he said.

Fillmer said he recently attended an international conference in Washington on bioenergy and alternative energy that was attended by 8,000 people.

“The time is right to look at alternative energy, to look at the technology, to look at the innovation, to look at the breakthroughs that I think will occur because of projects like this,” Fillmer said.

He said the Center for Bioenergy and Bioproducts (which is part of the Natural Resources Management & Development Institute), works to develop renewable fuels and alternative energy sources with programs such as the one here but also with the agricultural and forestry industry in the state.

Jeff Breeden of Biodiesel Logic, which produces the equipment in Arab, said the Environmental Protection Agency is doing a documentary on the equipment to give to every city in the United States.

Mark Bentley with the Alabama Clean Fuels Coalition said payback on the program, which costs about 75 cents per gallon to produce biodiesel fuel, would “pay back” the investment in just more than six months.