Vegetable oil-powered driving – Erla innovation
The association "Roule ma frite" gives oils used for deep fat frying in restaurants and other establishments a second lease of life. The aim is to reuse waste products while also reducing oil consumption.
This the challenge put forward by the association "Roule ma frite" on the island of Oléron (France), which recycles oil used for cooking to turn them into diesel fuel. "What used to be considered as waste is becoming useful again”, summarises Grégory Gendre, 29 years old, a former Greenpeace activist and leading member, alongside Laurie Durand, 27 years old, of the association "Roule ma frite-17", which is supported by the European Social Fund and inspired by a similar experiment carried out in the Marseille region.
After a few months canvassing restaurateurs, for who should, by law – and this not always respected – collect their used oils, Laurie and Grégory, a dynamic duo from the Marennes-Oléron area, created 52 partnerships which provide for collection of oils in return for a 50-euro annual subscription to the association.
Between May and September, they collected 12 000 litres of cooking oil. “The aim was not to replace all the conventional oil”, acknowledges Mr Gendre, but “the main thing about these oils is that they are extracted from plants and have already gone through their carbon cycle (the CO2 emitted for cultivating the plant has already been absorbed as it was growing, editor’s note)".
To transform it into an additive (30%) for diesel vehicles simply requires decantation and then filtering, which was carried out in an agricultural hangar amidst the vines in the commune of Saint-Pierre-d'Oléron (Charente-Maritime), in which a kind of artisanal laboratory was set up “for less than 2 000 euros”, smiles Mr Gendre. After filtering, 10 to 20% of the raw material forms as a deposit, although this in turn is recycled, being combined with sawdust to make fuel for boilers.
The oil itself is sold to members of the association, who do not have to make any alterations to the way their vehicles function. A litre of this fuel sells for 0.5 euros per litre: this revenue is saved up in case customs authorities launch any kind of procedure concerning fuel duties. To back up the use of these oils as fuel, "Roule ma frite" points to two European directives relating to biofuel as well as to the authorisation for local authorities to launch experiments with this kind of product.
This industrial process has convinced the local authority of La Rochelle, which has allocated a budget of 50 000 euros to "Roule ma frite-17" to produce a largescale filtering station to provide biofuel for Sanitation Department vehicles, some of which already run on pure vegetable oils thanks to a device developed by the company based in the Vosges, Erla Technologies SAS, French market leader in biofuel storage, distribution and management.
"We feel that a certain amount (of used oils) gets lost in the sewers, in people’s rubbish or is dumped elsewhere. With this process, we grab these products and make use of them a second time", explains Jacques Bernard, Vice-President of the La Rochelle local authority, which estimates that the potential quantity of used oils in its area could be as much as 175 000 litres and the requirements of its fleet 60 000 litres per year. Grégory and Laurie are already planning to enter a new sector: the tonnes and tonnes of seaweed which pile up on the seashore produce a gas as they ferment; if this gas could be harnessed it could become a source of energy.
