“We call it FOG: fat, oil, and grease,” said Jane Rebhuhn, treasurer for the Great Neck Water Pollution Control District, referring to a combination of products that, like plaque in an artery, is destructive for the wastewater treatment plant.
“It basically gets harder and harder, thicker and thicker,” said district Superintendent Chris Murphy. “We had a pipe you couldn’t get a soccer ball through.”
Through their biofuel program, which turns used vegetable oil into energy, and other sustainable technologies, the Great Neck Water Pollution Control District will reduce its energy footprint – and hopefully save money for taxpayers – with their new $50 million wastewater treatment plant. Started in 2010, the plant will be complete by December 2013.
To finance the project, the district has obtained $5 million in grants from New York State, a $522,500 grant and hopes to obtain another $400,000 from the state Department of State.
“One of the biggest expenses for us is electrical,” Rebhuhn said.
A “substantial” portion of the district’s energy needs will be generated by solar panels, biofuel, and a microturbine cogeneration facility that will convert methane gas into electricity. The microturbine facility will be the first of its kind of Long Island.
The water pollution control district is upgrading and expanding the wastewater plant in response to more stringent wastewater regulations. When complete, it will accept wastewater from the Village of Great Neck, whose existing plant is only 1,000 feet away.
“The new plant is going to cost less to run than two existing plants,” Murphy said.
Every wastewater treatment plant must have an emergency generator that can run the entire plant independent of the grid. The new plant will require a significantly larger backup generator, with the old generator running on biofuel.
“This building here right now is being run on biofuel off the generator,” said Murphy, referring to the administration building. The generator is run about seven hours a day.
The water pollution control district achieved a small victory over FOG in 2006, with the implementation of the biofuel program, which uses vegetable oil from three Great Neck-area restaurants – T.G.I. Fridays, Pearl East and Cordon Blue Deli.
Murphy said the strip had been a hot spot for dumped oil into the system because oil removal was an expense. The oil was carted off for a fee by a company that sells used vegetable oil to biofuel companies.
“As a byproduct of all this, the restaurants in that strip don’t have to pay,” he said. “The cool thing about the biofuel, the byproduct is glycerine, which is soap. We actually use the waste product to offset the degreaser.”
The upside of using a chain restaurant is a consistent supply. T.G.I. Fridays changes their oil regularly.
Murphy said the biofuel can be poured directly into any diesel engine. He said it will burn cleaner, is a better lubricant, and actually cleans an engine; He said engines made before 2010 were not designed to handle new lower sulfur fuel, as sulfur helps lubricate.
The water pollution control district makes as much biofuel as it can use, but is unable to sell excess due to stringent regulations.
“Ecofest, we generated all the electricity for that,” Murphy said. “The park district, we give them all the energy for their mowers. It’s a very, very doable technology. There’s a very low learning curve.”
Rebhuhn suggested that the Great Neck school district could save money by using biofuel to run school buses.
“They could investigate using this, because we provide all the energy we need for the plant from three restaurants, and like you said, we have a gazillion restaurants in Great Neck,” she said. “We would definitely help them. Anybody who is interested.”
The water pollution control district is helping the Town of North Hempstead set up their own biofuel program.
