Patent ID: 7575608

Claim:
A clean-emissions method for generating energy comprising the steps of: vaporizing a high-grade fatty-acid composition via distillation from a feed composition including an animal fat, a vegetable oil, or a combination thereof, leaving a non-vaporized natural-oil byproduct; determining the ratio of the natural-oil byproduct to another fuel that will produce an emission of at least one pollutant chosen from nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides, carbon monoxide and particulate matter at a level at which a benefit is provided under a pollution-emission regulation established by a regulatory agency; burning the natural-oil byproduct to release energy in a furnace in which the natural-oil byproduct is substituted for the other fuel to produce a natural-oil-byproduct-to-other-fuel ratio at least as great as the determined ratio, wherein emission of the pollutant would be above this level and access to the benefit precluded if a sufficient amount of the other fuel alone were burned in the furnace to release the same amount of energy; and harnessing energy released by burning the natural-oil byproduct to drive a process.