Projects
East Bay Municipal Utility District Grant For Cost-Effective Fats, Oil and Grease-to-Biodiesel Production at a Wastewater Treatment Plant
The East Bay Municipal Utility District (MUD) will develop a system to make biodiesel at its existing wastewater treatment plant in Oakland, using waste fats, oils and grease (FOG) as a feedstock.
East Bay MUD will construct a FOG-receiving facility and install two 30,000-gallon storage tanks. While lighter fats and oils are well suited to become biofuels, heavy greases such as brown grease are challenging to convert. East Bay MUD will test improved ways to harvest the heavy greases and to reduce the sulfur content of biodiesel.
The utility district has been investigating turning waste fats, oils and grease into fuel since 2007. If they can successfully develop this technology, they could produce 300,000 gallons of biodiesel at the Oakland site alone each year.
Grant Amount
$1,000,000
Match Funding
Project participants will provide $1,575,000.
Project Participants
East Bay Municipal Utility District will be the principle investigator for the research, testing, and demonstration.
Proven Construction is the contractor for the FOG receiving station.
Project Benefits
This research project could someday provide an important revenue stream for wastewater treatment plants in California and across the nation. If the technology is successful, wastewater treatment facilities throughout the state could conservatively produce as much as 60 million gallons of biodiesel a year, creating 150 to 300 permanent jobs in the process.
EBMUD plans to hire one full-time junior engineer for this project; construction of the FOG receiving station will directly employ approximately 3and a half people for 1 and a half years.
Biodiesel reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 88 percent when made from these feedstocks – providing an important air quality improvement.
Grant Agreement Number: ARV-10-022