Food waste becomes fuel

• PHOTO: Food oil

Brandon Yoemans must check the waste oil to determine its free fatty acids level. That will help him determine how much potassium hydroxide must be added to help convert the oil to biodiesel fuel.

Talk about it

Some of the machines tooling around near the S.B. Foot Tanning Co. may smell good enough to eat.

That's because the exhaust is the byproduct of biodiesel fuel in the engine made from waste oil at several St. James Hotel restaurants.

Tannery officials started converting the used oil - left over from fried foods - into more environmentally friendly biodiesel fuel in 2007.

Biodiesel fuel contains no petroleum, is nontoxic and biodegradable.

Tannery officials tried a batch in a test vehicle in 2008 and put a 25 percent mix in a tannery vehicle last June.

They have tweaked the process over time and produced 300 gallons of biodiesel this winter to burn in the tannery's boiler. The warmer weather will allow the fuel to be used in several tannery and Red Wing Shoe Co. vehicles.

The tannery is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Shoe, which also owns the St. James.

"This project has definitely blossomed into a lot more than I thought it would," said Brandon Yoemans, director of research and development at the tannery. "It's really turned into something great."

Yoemans began researching biofuels after learning about them from a relative. Producing biodiesel fit well with tannery officials' environmental goals so Yoemans got to work.

He said the company would eventually like to convert enough oil to biodiesel to run it partially in all local Red Wing Shoe and tannery vehicles.

"It's good for all companies to be environmentally conscious," Yoemans said. "We're not exception to that. Anything we can do to help is good."

One gallon of oil coverts into one gallon of biodiesel.

Since the tannery is a manufacturing facility, Yoemans found most of the equipment he needed - like storage containers - on site.

He's converted a small part of the building into a biodiesel production center, where he will continue to expand the project.

Tags: northland, agriculture, agribusiness