1) Cost of used
cooking oil including the labor to collect and process the oil is about
$0.34/gallon assuming a $10.00/hr employee is performing the work.
2) The first year
economics worked out as follows:
Total
UCO cost to the farm was 5,500 gallons x $0.34/gal = $1,870.
Total
farm energy savings this year was $8,580. No. 2 oil averaged about
$1.90/gal.
Total
restaurant disposal cost savings was $8,250. The average cost for the
restaurants to dispose of the oil is about $1.50/gal.
3) Installed cost
of boiler system was:
A)
About $25,000 for complete new hot water system. This represents about a
3 year payback on energy savings alone. We installed our system from
scratch so the costs included things like piping, pumps, valves unit heaters and
such that are standard heating system components. These components are the
same regardless of the fuel being burned.
B) The cost would
have been about $15,000 for tie in to existing hot water system. These
installations are called primary/secondary systems. The major advantage of
these systems is that the original equipment remains in place and operational as
a back-up to the UCO system. These systems are less expensive that brand
new hot water systems since they make use of existing piping, valves, pumps, and
unit heaters.
C) The cost would
have been about $10,000 for a new hot air furnace system. These systems are the most cost effective of the
systems since there is no need for piping, valves, pumps, and unit
heaters. In these systems a fan blows air across the furnace heat
exchanger and into the space. Because UCO solidifies at relatively
high temperatures, at least one hot water boiler is necessary to heat and
process the UCO. Heated oil must be supplied to each burner to assure
reliable operation.
These figures are estimates including
labor and materials installed to meet all local, state, and federal codes.
Savings can result from farm self installation.
4) The comparative
costs of various fuels this winter were:
Used
Cooking Oil $0.34/gal
Yellow
Grease (Truck Load) $0.95/gal
Soybean
oil (Commodity prices) $1.60/gal
No.
2 Fuel Oil $2.10/gal
Biodiesel
B20 $2.75/gal
Biodiesel
B100 $3.50/gal
5) UCO available in Maine
is only about 1.5 million gallons per year. In 2001 Maine used more than
470 million gallons of heating oil. Obviously this will not solve
Maine's energy problems.
However, if all this UCO were used to heat
greenhouses like ours, we could:
Heat 40
Acres of Greenhouses Distributed Across Maine
Contribute
~$6 Million in Gross Farm Revenue
Save ~
$2.25 Million in Restaurant UCO Disposal Costs
Do This
With NO Haz Mats, Minimal Transportation, NO Multi-Million Dollar Process
Plant, NO Legislative Support Actions.
