As a restaurant owner, how often do you wonder what happens to your used cooking oil once it has been collected? Would you ever imagine that the very oil you discard could actually become a source of fossil-free heat for your restaurant?
The truth is, what happens to your grease waste largely depends on the company collecting it – and their process. Grease waste management companies each have their own methods, and the impacts of their approaches can vary widely. Here’s a deep-dive on how the broader industry handles used cooking oil versus the local, closed-loop approach we take at Lifecycle Renewables.
The Typical Cooking Oil Recycling Process:
Much of the used cooking oil collected from restaurants is exported or transported long distances. A majority of it is sent to large-scale biofuel facilities in the Midwest and Southern United States – or even overseas, often used as biofuel in Europe.
While these companies are contributing to the creation of renewable energy, there are considerable drawbacks to transporting the cooking oil such long distances:
- Environmental Challenges: Long-distance transportation of used cooking oil generates additional carbon emissions, which undermines the environmental benefits of biofuel.
- Limited Local Impact: By sending the cooking oil far away, these practices miss an opportunity to benefit the local community.
Lifecycle Renewables’ Regional, Closed-Loop System:
Lifecycle Renewables takes a different approach in order to maximize the environmental and local impacts of restaurants’ used cooking oil.
Instead of transporting the oil long distances, we process it locally – turning it into a 100% renewable heat called Truburn. This heat is then used within the same communities where the oil was collected – in some cases, the heat is even used in the very same restaurants from which the oil was collected. By minimizing transportation and focusing on local processing, our closed-loop system allows us to amplify our impact.
Local Processing: Unlike other companies, we keep our process hyper-local. Once we collect a restaurant’s used cooking oil, it’s processed locally at our facility. This minimizes transportation distances, significantly reducing any unnecessary additional carbon emissions.
Local Heating: The processed oil is converted into Truburn, our 100% renewable heating oil. This heating is then used to heat local buildings and businesses – sometimes even heating the very same restaurants that we collect the used cooking oil from in the first place.
Local Benefits: By keeping the entire process within the same region from start to finish, we ensure that the environmental and economic benefits of clean energy stay within the same community.
Our regional, closed-loop system transforms your used oil into a valuable fossil-fuel alternative, helping to heat your local area and reduce carbon emissions up to 86%. By choosing Lifecycle Renewables, you’re not just managing waste – you’re having a direct impact on the environment, and your own community. Reach out today to learn more about how Lifecycle Renewables can benefit your restaurant business.
