Cook County jail teaching inmates how to produce UCO biodiesel

In Illinois, WTTW reports that the Cook County jail has implemented a new project that teaches inmates how to produce biodiesel from used cooking oil supplied by the jail’s cafeterias, and then the fuel produced fuels the jail’s two utility trucks exclusively. The jail invested $11,000 in the production kit last November and started offering classes to produce the fuel shortly after, all on the back of experiments one of the jail’s correction officers was doing on his own time at home. Since January the students have produced 400 gallons of biodiesel.