Alaska Waste opened the state's first commercial biodiesel plant Thursday, as part of a green initiative to turn waste into a source of fuel. Alaska Waste currently collects 4,000 gallons of used cooking oil each week from local businesses. The new plant will turn that oil into diesel fuel for the company's fleet of 100 garbage trucks.
Some of that fuel began its journey Thursday afternoon at the Glacier Brewhouse, where French fries were sizzling in hot cooking oil. The restaurant goes through 24 gallons of oil each week, and it's just one of 240 businesses in Southcentral Alaska collecting used oil as part of the Alaska Waste initiative.
"We take our fryer oil, we drop it into these carts, it goes into this nice little filter and it filters out all the impurities," said the restaurant's Patrick Hoogerhyde.
The Glacier Brewhouse's used oil accumulates in a 200-gallon tank, and Alaska Waste picks the tank up when it's full. Other locations have outside connections that allow their oil to be pumped directly onto a tanker truck for transport to the biodiesel plant.
"We have two main goals, actually, at Alaska Waste for this fuel," said Alaska Waste's Jeff Jessen. "To reuse the fuel and prevent it from ending up in the landfill, and then utilize it in our vehicles and our trucks, our garbage trucks, to reduce carbon emissions."
At the plant's grand opening, Alaska Waste announced that it's designed to produce 250,000 gallons of diesel fuel each year. The facility is the result of years of planning.
"We felt like we really had to take a proactive approach to this, and try to find a solution that'll 
work well for the user and for us as the hauler," said the company's Jeff Riley.
When collection trucks bring in the used oil, it's put into a storage tank where any particulates settle down. The used oil is skimmed off the top and put into a second tank that's considered feed stock. It's then pulled out and mixed with three other substances to create a chemical reaction, replacing glycerin in the biodiesel mix with methanol.
After the unused methanol is stripped out and the product is polished, it's ready to use as fuel. Alaska Waste says it's completing the testing process to make sure the fuel is retail-grade biodiesel.
The company says no government funding was involved in the $3 million project. It's not yet clear whether the plant will soon be open to the public.
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