Unidine's Booras touts alternative energy sources

Nation's Restaurant News, Feb 18, 2008 by Elissa Elan

A 20-year veteran of the Boston-area restaurant industry, Paul Booras has seen a lot of foodservice trends come and go over the years. But one trend he thinks has staying power is the movement toward alternative energy sources, such as the conversion of vegetable oil into biodiesel fuel. Booras, who has operated several of his own restaurants and also worked for Legal Sea Foods, recently joined on-site concern Unidine Corp. in Newton, Mass., as director of culinary services.

Now did you become involved in the alternative-energy movement?

At my previous place of employment, Legal Sea Foods, we started doing it, using biodiesel fuel. In fact, they right now are in the process of trying to convert three of the trucks in their distribution fleet. Legal is even looking at purchasing a diesel generator to run the electricity at its commissary. They would take all of the vegetable oil used at all of their units and use it to operate their own electricity. You know, if it makes sense for your model, why not do it?

What's the benefit of implementing such a program?

There's something like a 75-percent reduction in carbon emissions and also a big reduction in sulphur emissions, which isn't really that great for the environment either.

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Would Unidine adopt a similar solution?

From all the homework I've done I've realized we don't process [energy] in the same way. We don't own our facilities so it doesn't make sense for us to convert. But we could be part of a co-op that pulls vegetable oil [from our accounts] and cleans and polishes it for biodiesel production. As an end user of fuel consumption we can certainly become part of the recycling process. The more opportunities where people can see [biodiesel fuel's accessibility], the more willing they'll be to adopt it as a conventional fuel system.

Is it smart from a business perspective?

I don't know where the break-even or return is, but from a corporate perspective it makes business sense. It is a viable option if you have a commissary, particularly with ethanol prices increasing and oil prices creeping up.