Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Grease-Powered Restaraunt Vent Turbine

Gas turbine burns waste oil to vent restaraunt and generate power
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Restaraunts require large fans to vent smoke and steam from their kitchens. They also often produce large ammounts of waste vegetable oil.

A large gas turbine on the roof would burn up the oil and draw air outside, as well as generating electricity for the restaraunt and the rest of the city. A turbine would work well for this application, since when there is no oil to burn, you could still use it as a vent fan running on electricity.

Besides generating electricity, the waste oil could be burned in a furnace to heat the building in the winter.

discontinuuity, Dec 17 2006

Gas turbine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_turbine
"Gas turbine may also refer to just the turbine element." [BJS, Dec 17 2006]

[link]






       Explain how this works please. What is the gas needed for. Why not just run it on the waste oil? Or is that the idea and is "gas turbine" a name for "engine that runs on waste oil"?
zeno, Dec 17 2006
  

       I donate all my used oil to local farmers along with all my scrap food for thier pigs. In return I often get fresh raspberries, new potatoes and if I am lucky some homemade smoked bacon.   

       Not to mention the fact that I can write off all my waste donation.
Chefboyrbored, Dec 17 2006
  

       Yes, [zeno], the turbine only burns oil. "Gas turbine" in this case means a type of jet engine that runs a generator, and the only gas involved is the air being drawn from the kitchen.   

       I've added a couple things to the original post. I hope everything is clear. The wikipedia article in the link should also help explain things. The "microturbines" section in particular sounds like it would be a good fit for this application.
discontinuuity, Dec 17 2006
  

       I think its a good idea (although pretty expensive to install), but I don't think it would produce enough electricity even to completely run the restaurant itself.
BJS, Dec 17 2006
  

       Ah, thanks. I bun this. In the Netherlands people have been fined for running their car on waste oil. It is illegal. But if you can run your car on it I don't see why you could not also run a generator. They are not so expensive.
zeno, Dec 18 2006
  

       I'll bun it. It seems like the main purpose is to vent out the kitchen. And because you have an endless supply of waste oil, the powered vent can use the oil as fuel.
Jscotty, Dec 18 2006
  

       M1 Abrams tanks use a turbine engine that can run on just about any combustible liquid fuel including among other things vegetable oil. This could most certainly work, though it would be costly.
jhomrighaus, Dec 19 2006
  
      
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