Generator Turns Used Cooking Oil into Energy
The evolution of diesel generators just got kicked up a notch with the invention of the Vegawatt Power System, a cooking oil-powered generator that’s being used at the Finz seafood restaurant in Dedham, Massachusetts. Popular Science gave the Vegawatt one of its Invention Awards for a nifty solution to a common restaurant problem: what to do with leftover oil and how to provide enough energy for the fryers that produce it in the first place.
The 6’-tall Vegawatt, invented by engineer James Peret, processes about 10 to 12 gallons of used deep-fryer oil every day, or 80 gallons per week, which is about standard for large restaurants. The end result is some five kilowatts of energy per hour, which can reduce power costs by about 10% and equal monthly savings of $1,000.
According to Popular Science, “Before going into the Vegawatt’s generator, the bread-crumb-filled muck is deposited into a reservoir and undergoes a multi-stage cleaning, treatment, and filtration process. At this stage, the oil is prepared for combustion with a method Peret devised that draws heat from the exhaust system. After that, the processed grease moves into a tank that feeds the modified 15-horsepower diesel generator. Heat from the Vegawatt’s engine coolant is used to warm the water in the building’s pipes, further reducing the restaurant’s energy needs.”
Stay tuned to learn about more generator and automatic voltage regulator innovations. The face of the industrial generator as we know it is changing.
admin on June 24th 2009 in Industrial
