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Subscribe to RSSMassachusetts restaurants have become the latest targets of a slick crime wave: theft of cooking oil.
In the bucolic waterfront town of Essex, Mass., police say bandits struck Lewis's Restaurant and Oyster Bar, the Fortune Palace and the Windward Grill along Route 133 after midnight Wednesday and stole containers of used cooking oil, according to NECN, NBC News affiliate in the Boston-area.
Read complete coverage by NECN.com
"As one of my officers said, 'It's like liquid gold,'" Essex Police Chief Peter Silva told the cable station. "I believe that this is the third time since May of 2011 that this has happened in town, so it's a concern of ours, and we're trying to get to the bottom of it."
Nationwide, restaurants have reported thefts of used cooking oil worth thousands of dollars by rustlers who are refining it into barrels of biofuels in backyard stills. Police say rising oil and fuel prices and tough economic times are behind the recent spike.
"The value goes up and down," said Phil Bruno, general manager of American By/Products Co. Inc., who’s hired to haul off and recycle oil from restaurants in the Essex area. He told NECN that thieves are now beating him to the job.
"It's a commodity, like crude oil," Bruno said, adding, "The prices are up right now. They're at a pretty good level."
Grease is transformed into fuel through a chemical process called transesterification, which removes glycerine and adds methanol to the oil, leaving a thinner product that can power a diesel engine. Biodiesel can also be blended with petroleum diesel, and blends of the alternative fuel are now sold nationwide.
As the price of diesel shoots up, so, too, does the value of grease.
In the last five years, the price of soybean oil — the main feedstock for biodiesel made in the United States — has tripled, according to the National Biodiesel Board.
"It's a bigger problem than I think many people probably realize," Silva said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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SO the green energy crowd has bred another form of "thief".
Damn, and all along they thought only oil companies were the thieves.
Apparently crooks of every strips gravitate to the energy sector.
Fry their asses.....in cooking oil, of course!
Grrr... stripes!
If the restarant is paying to have it hauled off, the thieves did them a favor. The biowaste company is the victim here. Except for the container I guess.
This stuff is liquid gold. In 2004 my neighbor & hunting buddy got interested in Biodiesel. We three pitched in and bought the equipment at about $5,000 total and he set it up at his place and he would go to all of the local fast food places and offer to remove their used cooking oil for free. They jumped all over this since they had been paying some one to dispose of it.
We processed 500 gallons of fuel a week at a cost of about .60 cents per gallon for our personal trucks.
Now these same stores sell it to people instead of giving it away. It still is a savings because at the price we purchase it for our cost per gallon is still only about $1.20 vs $4.75 per gallon at the pumps.
It is not a good investment though unless you run diesel trucks and have the time and space to commit to the manufacture. I dont think I would do this on my own, by the partnership makes it work. That and I drive about 800 to 1,000 miles a week.
Used cooking oil has long been valuable for lots of after-use markets. Back in the 70's I ran a fast food outfit that used peanut oil for their cooking and we had "the grease man" pick it up for us. He then sold it for use in a variety of markets, including recycling and use in making lipstick. Yum. And he was a very wealthy man! Didn't smell great, but had enough $$ to make him deal with it.
As a diesel mechanic I can attest to the damage bio-diesel causes to engines and it is not pretty!
Unless you have a vehicle which was designed for it this stuff causes catostrophic damage.
It clogs injectors which then causes a 'lean' condition and this in turn causes overheating in the cylinders which RUINS pistons and cracks cylinder walls. For example the Ford powerstroke injectors are hundreds of dollars each not to mention the last one I serviced suffered cracked heads (2500) 8 new injectors (2400) Cracked cylinder wall (100 for a sleeve) and boring on all the cylinders (150) new pistons, rings, cam bearings, rod and main bearings. After the cost of replacing the injector pump and rebuilding the engine the total cost was nearly 9,000 dollars. How much diesel fuel can you buy for that price? At a small savings you can NEVER recoup the cost of the engine by using this sludge, as we call it at the shop.
But... there are still those who will continue to use it and I appreciate that, it keeps my bills paid!
Um, I didn't know that and have been running it ( half and half ) for the last 4 years. It is strange that my mechanic didn't tell me that when he installed my Bosch marine injectors. In fact he was surprised at how clean my stocked injector were.
I too am a Diesel Mechanic... and Diesels as Rudolf Diesel designed them were NEVER Meant to run on a Petroleum fuel... the Prototype was ran on Peanut oil. As far as your" Powerstroke" It is a Direct Injection engine You did however forget to specify what year it was so I am gonna assume it was either a 6.0 or a 6.4 ltr Powerstroke Both of which are designed SPECIFICALLY for Petroleum diesel ONLY so of course Home brew Bio is gonna tear it up... Especially if the fuel was not made properly.... Biodiesel works best in the Older Mechanically Injected diesels. And for those of you that have the new diesels with the Diesel Particulate Filter DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES Attempt to run home brew bio in your engines... you will void the warranty as well as have to replace an engine and the entire exhaust system.... The engines ARE NOT Designed for Nor Compatible with Home brew Bio.... BIG NO NO!!!!
You are full of crap. A lean burning diesel would not run hot. Gasoline yes, diesel no. In a diesel, power is controlled by the amount of fuel injected. The air volume is set.
You are full of crap. A lean burning diesel would not run hot. Gasoline yes, diesel no. In a diesel, power is controlled by the amount of fuel injected. The air volume is set.
Hello Knight Rider,
"the Prototype was ran on Peanut oil"
If memory serves me correctly, I believe that early diesel engines ran on hemp oil ...
good'ol Yankee ingenuity. We now have to eat food cooked in used motor oil.
No matter how much these "green thieves" stole, it doesn't begin to approach the Solyndra scandal that BHO political hacks foisted on taxpayers. The real green thieves are in the White House.
my truck hates biodiesel!! nothing but crap just like the current admin and its leader!
How did dimwits gravitate this story to who's in the White house? If your a Christian your suppose to pray for those in authority. Doesn't matter who's there congress is disfunction and whats going on in Euro is coming here. It's a world wide financial collaspe.
Gives a whole new meaning to: