http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2002/02/02082002/ap_46348.asp - 2/8/2002 - ENN.com
University of Georgia heats campus buildings with chicken fat Friday, February 08, 2002 By Associated Press ATHENS, Ga. - At the University of Georgia, home to thousands of students raised on Southern fried chicken, chicken fat is being put to an unusual use: heating the campus. Officials say it's cheap, it's safe, and it doesn't make the town smell like a KFC. Chicken fat, restaurant grease, and similar so-called biofuels could become a good alternative to fuel oil, Georgia scientists say. In tests over the last few weeks, the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering has used giant steam boilers - converted to burn animal fats - to heat water and buildings on campus. Tom Adams, the department's outreach coordinator, said the fuel is safer for people and the environment than burning coal and oil, and no one has complained about odor. The university spent about $30,000 to retrofit one of its big steam boilers so that it could burn animal fats and oils as well as natural gas or fuel oil. The campus' main boiler burns coal, but the others, including the retrofitted one, kick in to meet increased demand in cold weather. In tests that run several hours each day, the scientists have burned various mixes of petroleum and animal oils - sometimes up to 100 percent chicken fat, pork fat, beef tallow, or other greases. The fats give about 90 percent of the heat of fuel oil, Adams said, and the resulting air emissions are comparatively low in sulfur and other pollutants. The project, funded by the Georgia-based U.S. Poultry & Egg Association and the Fats and Protein Research Foundation in Illinois, also will test the potential of animal fat in other applications, such as truck and auto engines. "We've only scratched the surface," said Bob Synk, a consulting engineer on the project. The nation's dependence on foreign oil is increasingly seen as a problem, Synk said, and the U.S. energy plan calls for alternative fuel sources to supply up to 20 percent of energy needs within two decades. The country already produces about 11 billion pounds of fat a year from poultry, pork, and beef, with the poultry industry alone producing some 2 million pounds of chicken fat a week, Adams said. Copyright 2002, Associated Press All Rights Reserved ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Get your FREE credit report with a FREE CreditCheck Monitoring Service trial http://us.click.yahoo.com/ACHqaB/bQ8CAA/ySSFAA/FGYolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Please do NOT send "unsubscribe" messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
