Indy Zoo’s On-Site Café Cooks Up Biofuel Project

While conservation and education are at the forefront of most menagerie agendas, Indianapolis Zoo is shining the spotlight on another eco-friendly endeavour. Over the past five years the establishment has been developing a brand new sustainability project designed to reduce its environmental impact and bring its operations into line with its sustainable ethos.

Café at the forefront of cutting edge eco developments

The zoo’s café is the heart and soul of the project, with Manager Pat Cummings using kitchen waste to help keep the entire premises clean, green and healthy. "The oil we actually use, we turn into the zoo and they use to power their vehicles," explains Cummings.

The program has been in the making for five years, with the zoo working closely with Cummins to create the innovative biodiesel initiative. The first few batches of kitchen derived biofuel have just been rolled out and used to successfully power the zoo’s fleet of small utility vehicles. While currently the small batches of fuel are only capable of powering a handful of small vehicles, the zoo’s potential to create over 500 gallons a year could soon slash its diesel consumption.

Nora Fletchall, supervising VP of operations for the Indianapolis Zoo asserts that the project is set to play an integral role in encouraging visitors to live greener, cleaner and healthier lives.

"We want to be a model for that, so this is a program that helps us to talk to the public about what we are doing but also engage them in conversations about what they can do as well," she says.

On-site biofuel processor set to slash diesel consumption

Jack Bow, Indy Zoo’s director of facilities oversees the creation and deployment of the biofuel, revealing that it’s a surprisingly simple process.

"We’ll pump it into our processor, we’ll add our catalyst to go with it, basically methanol and potassium hydroxide, it’s heated up and then eventually it will turn into the biofuel we’re using," he explains.

The biofuel initiative goes hand in hand with a series of other green projects the zoo has pioneered over the past few years. These include car re-charging stations, green energy usage tracking systems and in-house recycling programmes.

No doubt Indi zoo is always on the search for cost effective on-site analysing solutions. ‘Portable Infrared Analysers Provide an Easy On-Site Method for Detection and Measurement of Biofuels’ offers readers an up-to-the-minute overview of the portable infrared analyser equipment that’s accompanied the increased integration of biofuel into petroleum fuels.

Image via Flickr Creative Commons. Credits: Chrisy Wainwright