Keene State Now Uses Grease To Heat The College

I wonder if UNH has a similar system?

You might not know, but Keene State College is where I went after high school.  I wanted to be close enough to home and study music.  The campus checked off both those boxes, so off I went.  Keene has always had a special place in my heart even though the dorm room heating radiators used to make a noise that sounded exactly like Freddy Krueger's fingernails.  They may have been the same ones that were there the first year that the school was built.

Speaking of the heat, Keene State College uses grease to burn fuel, according to a report in the Concord Monitor.  Yup.  Grease.  The company that provides them with the grease is Lifecycle Renewables out of Tewksbury, MA.  Here's how they do it, according to their website:

We provide restaurants from Newport RI to Bangor ME to Albany NY a cooking oil receptacle free of charge. When cooled to a safe temperature ( below 100F), your employee will take oil from fryolators and pour it into our receptacle.....  We recycle your cooking oil into biofuel in our state-of-the-art facility in Tewksbury, MA.

Did you read that?  They recycle cooking oil into BIOFUEL!  How cool!

According to a report on the Concord Monitor, KSC used to burn 850,000 gallons of No. 6 fuel and now, it burns 100% GREASE to create heat!  Lifecycle Renewables collects grease from restaurants and other places where fried food is prepared.  And guess what?  They PAY most of their restaurants to collect their grease!

Take a virtual tour of Keene State:

This is revolutionary.  My family alone eats a ton of french fries, so maybe I could contribute to the grease collection.  I would feel like I am contributing to the saving of our planet.  I'll call 'em up and see if they want it.

I know that UNH does have some energy initiatives, but I don't think they do this much.  I wonder if they will be inspired by their sister state college to the West!  One can only hope.