The "tasters" have a choice of fuel is less costly and environmentally friendly, recycled cooking oil
(Video from YouTube, by MITNewsOffice -17 February 2011: Students MIT biodiesel team organized the project, called "Green Grease" and traveled to Sao Paulo, Brazil last summer to start the application. Led by Libby McDonald, a member of the Community: Innovative Laboratory in the Department of Urban Studies and planning, the team made two big trucks to run on vegetable oil filtering directly, instead of turning that oil biodiesel)
Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil - MIT News Office (EUdeNA.) by David Chandler -24 February 2011: - Half a million scavengers in Brazil , known as "tasters" (in Argentina: "pickers") selected recyclables at landfills in the country, which they then sell to recyclers. But this process of collection of recyclable materials to their final destination involves fleets of fuel efficient cars ... Now, with the help of some students MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA NA) the "tasters" have a choice of less expensive fuel and environmentally friendly, recycled cooking oil ... In the summer of 2010, members of Team Biodiesel MIT, along with a Media Lab student and a Brazilian MIT student, traveled to San Pablo , Brazil to begin working on the project, called "Green Grease" . We worked with the Red CataSampa , a cooperative of "tasters" to run two of its big trucks directory filtered vegetable oil as fuel ... The team opted to make vehicles such as what making equipment in the MIT , instead of turning used oil into biodiesel because the biodiesel conversion process requires relatively complex and expensive machinery and toxic chemicals ... By contrast, the filtration process of the oil and vehicle conversions are simple and can make use of many recycled parts that were able to find or improvise, says Angela Hojnacki , president of Biodiesel Equipment MIT and member of the team "Fat Green leading technology to Brazil ... use filtered vegetable oil provides many benefits for the "tasters" First, used oils, a contaminant which, if discharged into rivers as often happens now, can kill fish and alter ecosystems. As a result, Brazil has begun to implement environmental regulations that restrict the disposal of waste oils and requiring the installation of grease traps ("fittings") in the plumbing systems in residential buildings. Second, can drastically reduce or possibly even eliminate fuel costs of "tasters" to operate their trucks. Fuel currently accounts for around one fifth of the operating costs of the cooperative garbage collectors ... The conversion of the truck involved is the installation of a separate fuel tank parallel to the fuel supply system, together with a set of valves that can be adjusted so the vehicle can operate with standard diesel fuel or oil filtering, depending on what is available, explains Hojnacki , which specializes in mechanical engineering, urban studies and planning . As part of the "tasters" local materials found in the trash, as a sign of metal from an old street, which became a board for the extra fuel tank. "We have made use of their ingenuity," said Hojnacki ... The "Green Grease" won a prize of U $ S 3,000 in the competition of IDEAS last year. an annual competition for student projects at MIT as "innovative service that can help meet the needs of marginalized communities." This project aims to improve the lives and incomes of the poor garbage collectors, who typically receive only a fraction of the value of the materials they collect, which they sell to middlemen who get most of the profits. Reduce or eliminate transportation costs could make it easier for cooperatives to deal directly with recycling companies. Until I turned the truck, only selling the waste oil collected from manufacturers of biodiesel for only 50 cents dollar a gallon, far less than what they were paying for fuel to run their trucks ... People who worked "were very excited about the technology," added Hojnacki ... Now that a cooperative truck drivers have been trained on how to carry out conversions of vehicles and provide filtration systems, the hope is that "they can become a small business, for the conversion of other vehicles and fuel provide , and so help spread the technology. " A follow-up visit this year, the team plans to expand the project to five Brazilian cities, with the help of "tasters" trained in San Pablo ...
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