Biofuel Industry Development
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Research Components
An efficient domestic resource for a cleaner fleet and heating fuel is needed
Existing efforts by CUCE-NYC will be continued and expanded, including the Waste Vegetable Oil Study (WVO) (below) effort undertaken in Brooklyn in the summer of 2005, and current New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) research by CUCE-NYC and Brookhaven National Laboratory, regarding multi-family biofuel demonstration (May, 2005 to November, 2006).
Added resources via SBIR (both USDA and DOE) grants and other research funding will be sought. Present research by Cornell University Department of Crop and Soil Science will also be accessed.
Sustainable Development
Plant product and waste vegetable oil (WVO) inputs represent a renewable fuel, and the inclusion of WVO generated in urban and peri-urban communities along with the synergy created by utilizing oil-field crop and waste oil inputs provides a domestic and efficient resource for a cleaner fleet and heating fuel. Present biodiesel relies upon Midwest-supplied soydiesel, and this effort will begin to assess the potential for regional production of biodiesel to complement that supply.
Waste Vegetable Oil Study (WVO) Final Report
Executive summary:
An Assessment of Waste Vegetable Oil Supply in Brooklyn, NY and its Potential as a Biodiesel Feedstock
Biodiesel (BD) refers to vegetable oil- or animal fat-derived fuels that can replace or blend with conventional diesel fuel and heating oil. BD burns cleaner than pure diesel with lower particulate and CO2 emissions and comes from natural, renewable sources that are domestically produced. Major questions facing the BD industry are associated with the source and availability of BD feedstock and the policies that can spur supply and demand. This study aims to assess the availability of one of the potential BD feedstocks, waste vegetable oil (WVO), in Brooklyn, NY. This effort is a first step in market research being conducted by Cornell University Cooperative Extension (CUCE) to assess the potential for BD production in New York City (NYC).
Primary data was collected from surveys of restaurants, food processing companies, and rendering companies. Questionnaires were implemented by phone and conducted by CUCE research assistants. Questions explored in this study include: Is WVO a viable feedstock for BD? How have policies influences BD production and industrial development? What are ideal economies of scale for BD production? Feedstock related data needs included: (a) how much oil is not being collected by the rendering industry, and (b) can the rendering industry be considered a supply source for an independent BD industry.
The survey covered 710 restaurants, 72 food-processing companies and six rendering companies. The restaurant survey produced useful results for about 116 restaurants that differed by type of cuisine, type of service, and seating capacity. These restaurants were located in all of the major zip codes of Brooklyn. The food processing company survey was unsuccessful in that only 19 useful responses were received and among these only 3 reported WVO availability. The rendering company survey provided a perspective on the competitiveness in the industry but no relevant quantitative data was obtained.
Results from the restaurant survey indicated that types of restaurant groups (such as Chinese) have significantly different levels of WVO. The largest restaurant group users and disposers of WVO were Chinese, Chicken (fast food), and Asian (non-Chinese) with 81, 77, and 71 gallons per month per restaurant, respectively. The average of all restaurants was about 48 gallons per month. Restaurants, further defined by seating capacity and level of service (as in, Full, Limited, or Carry-out), have different levels of WVO. Carry out restaurants and restaurants with seating capacity of over 100 people registered the highest WVO disposal in each category but these averages could be inaccurate because of small sample sizes. Ten restaurants, or 10% of the sample of responses, were not disposing waste with rendering companies. These restaurants averaged about 19 gallons of WVO per month. Three of these restaurants (averaging about 9 gallons/ month) said that a renderer used to collect the WVO but stopped because it was too expensive.
Borough estimates of WVO disposal volumes can be estimated using several approaches. A basic analysis, which uses average WVO over all restaurants, suggests that 1.65 million gallons of oil are disposed of each year. Another approach applies restaurant group WVO averages across the relevant groups in Brooklyn to arrive at 1.82 million gallons of WVO per year. These estimates are considerably lower than estimates derived from previous studies. These volumes are larger than a more conservative estimate that uses a smaller number of restaurants in Brooklyn. On the other hand, figuring that 10% of restaurants do not use renderers, 65,000 gallons of WVO would actually go to waste, potentially because it is too expensive to collect.
This study did not directly assess the economics of BD production. However, using data from other studies, it appears that there is not sufficient supply of WVO in Brooklyn to support a competitive commercial BD business, relying on Brooklyn WVO as an exclusive feedstock source. However, a plant located in Brooklyn, which drew feedstock supply from elsewhere in NYC metropolitan area or even as far as PA, would have sufficient supply to attain significant economies of scale, such as 10 million gallons / yr. Research that explores the optimal plant size and location in the NYC metro area could provide an important input to industrial development in this sector.
Download the final report in PDF format.