Dive Brief:

• Cape Cod BioFuels, a company based in Sandwich, MA that produces biofuel from cooking oil, was awarded a $280,000 state grant to increase production. The funds will go toward upgrading and expanding its current facility.
• The company collects used oil from 700 restaurants in the Cape Cod and Plymouth, MA areas, for a grand total that averages 450,000 gallons per year. The grant will allow the company to ramp up production, and the owners expect to double the number of restaurants from which it collects. 
• The current capacity of the facility caps out at 7,500 gallons weekly. The improvements made at the plant will increase the output to 30,000 per week.

Dive Insight:

Once processed, Cape Cod BioFuels are then used in vehicles, machinery, home heating oil and cooking oil once again. Interest in cooking-oil based projects is rising: In 2012, Boeing backed the study of using cooking oil as aviation biofuel. The research project was to assess the viability of using waste oil as fuel in the commercial aviation industry.