Earlier this month, Green Progress News reported that Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) was teaming up with the city of Rialto, California, in the construction of a system to take the greasy waste water and sludge generated by restaurants and transform it into a usable energy source. The team is using the impending necessity of waste-water treatment facility expansion for Rialto to take advantage of construction expense outlays that would have been expected anyway.

Fats, oils, and grease that are routinely sent out as waste from restaurants, and that currently go directly to landfills will instead be deposited at the Chevron/Rialto facility, which shall be the recipient of the waste hauler's "tipping fees" also. Tipping fees are simply the haulers' cost for emptying their loads. Typically, all that restaurant waste, and the potential trapped within it, ferments in our landfills, creating methane gas, most of which ends up in our atmosphere unless it's burned off immediately. The Rialto/Chevron project will instead process these wastes utilizing an organic matter "digester," producing methane for conversion into hydrogen, which can then be used to generate electricity.

The financial angles on this project will present some noticeable impact both in expenditure and returns. It is estimated it shall cost a bit over $15 million to build the system and bring it to operational status. When completed, the project will become eligible for a $4.05 million rebate on the fuel-cell plant cost from California's Self-Generation Incentive Program. The balance of the costs will reportedly be recovered through energy cost savings, and there are no expected taxpayer costs. Additionally, the system will be utilizing a bit less than 1,000 kilowatts of generating capacity to provide baseload power, which should assist in keeping consumer electricity costs stable. Grace Vargas, Rialto's mayor, has stated: "It's a 'win' for multiple stakeholders -- our city taxpayers, restaurants, grease haulers, and the environment."