Savannah Restaurant Grease Powers Vehicles

As the crowds pile on to River Street so too will the garbage. But one thing that will not go to waste is the grease from all of the delicious fried food.
As News Three’s Alice Massimi explains thanks to one Savannah group the used grease is being reused.

Grease gives many foods like French Fries their great taste. Only problem at the end of the day all that grease they’re cooked in becomes trash, that is until Jake Hodesh and two others stepped in.
“We collect vegetable oil, the grease left over from deep frying and cooking in area restaurants and what we do is up cycle the oil,” explains Hodesh. 
In less technical terms they turn it into biodiesel fuel.
“We come with our truck and basically we have a vacuum and the oil is pulled through this hose into our tank,” Hodesh says as he points to the created contraception.
It then undergoes a filtration process in which the water and particles are removed from the grease. Once the grease is fully filtered it is pumped out of that tube and sent right back into this truck behind me, it’s then brought to a biodiesel plant.
Not available to the public just yet the reused grease is being used to power numerous City of Savannah vehicles.
“The Sewage and Water Board has a fleet of about 12 vehicles that are using our biodiesel made from the city’s waster more or less.”
While it costs the same as regular diesel it does have some benefits over what you’d normally get at the pump.
“Where the benefits are is you get better mileage on some of the pump trucks that the city uses. They were getting 9 miles to the gallon and now they are getting 14 miles to the gallon on our fuel.”
In addition to recycling something would otherwise be waste, the exhaust from vehicles using the biodiesel is much cleaner.
A win, win situation and one Hodesh and his partners are hoping to expand on.

If you own a restaurant and would like get involved in refuel savannah log onto refuelsavannah.com