A Community-Wide Effort
January 18, 2012
BY Bryan Sims
The city of Smyrna, Ga., is putting to use $208,000 of federal stimulus funds to implement a biodiesel program in January that calls for the expansion of an existing public works building to create an area for two 55-gallon biodiesel processing plants with assorted storage tanks and containers to produce 2,200 gallons of biodiesel monthly from used cooking oil collected from area restaurants.
The proposed program in Smyrna, to be operated in-house by city employees, will be modeled after a similar program currently implemented by the city of Hoover, Ala. Public works employees will oversee the construction and maintenance of the building addition, assembly and operation of the processing plants, collection of the cooking oils and production of biodiesel. According to a statement by the city, “General public participation by local restaurants will be vital to the success of the program, but citizens will be able to participate in the program.”
Once operational, the city plans to gradually supply B20 into its service fleet. Once the service fleet is operational on B20, plans are to make a portion of the service fleet capable of running on B100. If the program is successful, and pending available funding, the city may consider expanding the program to add additional processing plants.
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—Bryan Sims
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