Saturday, March 29, 2008

WVO SWAGs for public beta test

We did some estimates recently I'd like to share. Feedback and corrections requested. And I promise to take a break from the software metaphors after this...

A search at Environmental Services for Maricopa County [1] returned 21155 entries for licensed "Food Establishments":

Using 50 gal / month / licensee [2] for round numbers equals 12,693,000 gals WVO (waste vegetable oil) per year in the greater Phoenix area.

Using 22 lbs of C02 per gallon of diesel fuel [3], and reducing that by 78% when running B100 [4] equals a net CO2 reduction of:

217,811,880 lbs (108,906 tons) of CO2 removed from the Valley [5]


by converting that WVO to biodiesel and displacing the petroleum diesel that would otherwise be used here.

[1] http://www.maricopa.gov/EnvSvc/envwebapp/business_search.aspx?as_page_title=Food%20Establishments%20Search&as_type=Food
[4] http://www.nrel.gov/vehiclesandfuels/npbf/pdfs/37136.pdf
[5] actually, the 78% reduction is described as "life-cycle CO2 emissions" compared to petroleum diesel, so the local CO2 reduction is probably less.

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