From farm to table, most people never consider what it actually takes to get oil to a fryer and the impact it has on the environment.
- Farming
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Land
An acre of land only yields around 70 gallons of oil.
Lime
Get this, 358lbs of lime is applied per acre to counteract acidity, because neutralizing soil acidity makes existing nutrients more available to plants such as soybeans.
All this to produce 500lbs of oil.
The mining of limestone requires the removal of considerable overburden (natural cover, soil, etc.) to gain access to limestone deposits. In addition, large amounts of energy are used to cook the limestone and make it into agricultural lime.
Pesticides & Fertilizer
Over 43lbs of pesticides and fertilizer are needed for every acre of land used for growing soybeans. In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recently acknowledged that agriculture is the major source of surface water quality problems in 72% of impaired rivers, 56% of lakes, and 43% of estuaries. The main culprits… pesticides and fertilizer.
Fuel
5 gallons of gas and diesel are used to farm each acre.
water
Around 26 inches of water is required for soybean to grow. That is an amazing 700,000 gallons per acre or 10,000 gallons of water per gallon of oil!
- Production
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Power
6.62kWh of electricity and 58 cubic feet of gas are used to extract the oil produced by 1 acre of land.
Production
The production of commercial soybean oil is complicated.
The soybeans are first cleaned, cooked, heat shocked, cracked, de-hulled and flaked prior to oil extraction.
This de-hulling is done by cracking the soybeans and a mechanical separation of the hulls and cracked soybeans. Magnets are used to separate any iron from the soybeans. The soybeans are also heated to about 170°f to coagulate the soy proteins to make the oil extraction easier.
The soybeans are cut in flakes mixed with a solvent, normally hexane. The hexane is separated from the soybean oil in evaporators. The evaporated hexane is recovered and returned to the extraction process. The hexane free crude soybean oil is then further purified.
Processing
The mechanical production of soybean oil with hydraulic presses is rarely used because it’s expensive and gives lower yields. Soybean oil is normally produced by extraction with solvents.
Packaging
1.2lbs of plastic and almost 1lb of cardboard are used to create the “jug in a box” packaging.
- Transportation
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Transport Fuel
It takes over 2 gallons of diesel to truck each 5 gallon jug of oil to you.
Your Fryers
You can now see the environmental impact of getting that oil to your kitchen. I think you’ll agree that it’s a real eye-opener.
You can lessen your impact on the environment by prolonging the useful life of the oil. Our FiltaFry service will extend the life of your cooking oil and, when that oil has reached the
end of its life, our technician will collect that waste oil and recycle it with our FiltaBio program.Filta works hand-in-hand with you to help lessen the environmental impact of cooking oil.
Turning Waste Oil to BioDiesel
OK, it’s now been used for cooking, what’s the best use for the used oil?
Diesel disperses many carcinogenic particles and greenhouse gases including Sulfur Dioxide, Carbon Monoxide and Carbon Dioxide (Greenhouse Gas).
By using biodiesel instead of diesel, you can reduce these emissions.
BioDiesel Impact
For every gallon of biodiesel used in place of diesel, you prevent 16 lbs of Carbon Dioxide alone entering the atmostphere.
