Burgerville turns cooking oil into biodiesel
March 21, 2006
VANCOUVER, Wash — The Holland Inc. will recycle cooking oil from its Burgerville restaurants into biodiesel, a cleaner-burning blend of diesel fuel, according to a news release.
The release said 39 Burgerville locations throughout the Pacific Northwest will have their used cooking oil picked up by Portland-based MRP Services and taken to a processing plant where the oil is transformed into methyl esters (biodiesel) and glycerin (a byproduct) through a process called transesterification.
MRP Services, a family-owned plumbing and drain service company, will pick up the used cooking oil on a monthly basis, depending on the amount of oil that each Burgerville location uses.
"Burgerville was an obvious source for us to get cooking oil from," said Will Craig, commercial accounts manager for MRP Services.
Biodiesel is currently the only fuel to have fully completed the health effects testing requirements of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments. It is made from renewable resources and has lower emissions compared to petroleum diesel and is less toxic than table salt and biodegrades as fast as sugar.