Site Contents

Sustainability Applications- Renewable Energy

Raising Local Fuel Economy Standards

vegoil

Food waste isn’t the only valuable resource that is typically thrown away in America. Waste grease from restaurants and campus dining halls can be converted to fuel as well instead of being hauled off for disposal.

samSara Waterman, pictured above, uses a pump to drain waste grease out of a grease trap behind one of Oberlin’s dining halls. The waste grease can either be poured into a waste-oil furnace to heat a greenhouse or it can be converted to bio-diesel.

Sam Merrett, pictured at the left, is an Oberlin graduate who acquired an abandoned gas station in Oberlin and launched Full Circle Fuels, an alternative fuel and vegetable oil conversion station. He built a mobile bio-diesel processor which is used to make bio-diesel at the Jones Farm for its tractor and other farm equipment. Full Circle Fuels partnered with the NAC to organize a workshop during the summer in which participants made their own 50 gallon batch of bio-diesel for use on the farm.