Extraction of Lipids from Wastewater to Produce Biofuels

Report presents results from a longitudinal study of the variability in waste grease composition, a demonstration of technical feasibility of production of biodiesel from these wastewater greases, and an evaluation of the environmental and cost tradeoffs using life cycle assessment and techno-economic analysis. The project demonstrated that extraction of lipids from wastewater greases to produce biodiesel has environmental benefits, although there are challenges with the economic and practical implementation of producing biodiesel from wastewater grease. While there are also challenges to purify the biodiesel product to reliably meet on-road fuel specifications, producing biofuels from wastewater greases helps achieve the goal of recovering useful resources from wastewater. Published by WE&RF. 144 pages. Online PDF. (2016)

Originally funded as WERF project U3R13.