Tour - Oil Collection

We collect Triglyceride Burner Fuels (TBF) from local restaurants. TBF is the fryolator oil once it is no longer acceptable for cooking, and animal fat that drips from meat as it is barbequed. Since the goal of the project has been to develop a system that will be practical for small farms and greenhouse operations, we have tried to use equipment readily available at a reasonable cost. When we started this project, the restaurants were paying between $1.00 and $2.00/gallon to have a rendering company haul the oil away where it gets cleaned to meet the specification for a commodity called Yellow Grease (YG). YG is primarily used as a low cost nutritive supplement in the animal feeds industry. We collect the oil at no cost to the restaurant. This arrangement allows the project to benefit both the restaurants and us.

Set Empty Drums At Restaurants

Once the restaurants have agreed to participate with us, we set 55 gallon drums in a place convenient for the restaurant workers. The drums we use are reconditioned, open top, steel drums with tight covers and locking bands. Although these drums are slightly more expensive, $35 each, they are pressure tested to ensure they will hold liquids, and are coated to resist corrosion. We have some drums that are almost 10 years old now, and are still usable.

A few smaller oil users store the oil in the original polyethylene containers until we can collect these containers. When they are ready, they call us to come pick them up.

Restaurants Fill Drums

The restaurants monitor the quality of their oil in the fryers. When the oil will no longer produce a high quality fried food, it must be discarded. Every restaurant has a different method of replacing the fry oil. In general, though, they collect the oil in our 55 gallon drums.

Pick Up Drums And Transport To Farm

We use a hoist and drum lifter, both available from Grainger Industrial Supply, to lift the full drums into the trailer we use to transport the drums. The full drums weigh about 400 lbs., and this equipment makes the task "relatively" easy.

Store Oil In Drums At Farm

At the farm the drums are handled on 2ftx4ft pallets that hold two drums each. Our small farm tractor, fitted with material handling forks makes moving the drums very easy. We keep full drums separate from empties, and try to use the oil on a first in first out basis to minimize any problems from old degraded oil. We have kept oil for as long as 6 years and found no problems in storing the oil for extended periods.