FORT PAYNE, AL – The Fort Payne City Council has began discussions on the potential for turning cooking oil into biodiesel that would fuel the city’s diesel fleet, according to the Times-Journal.

The initial plan would offer restaurants the chance to give used cooking oil to the city, and in exchange the city pumps trapped grease from the restaurants, saving businesses the cost of paying for the process.

Councilman Richard Pridmore offered preliminary conservative estimates of 2,200 gallons of biodiesel could be produced each month. The cost of producing the fuel is 78 cents a gallon, resulting in a possible city savings of $6,000 a month. According to the City, 55 gallons of cooking oil would produce around 50 gallons of biodiesel. Along with restaurants, the city could collect home cooking oil at the recycling center and biodiesel burns much cleaner than regular diesel.