Ukrop’s fried chicken is one of their signature foods, and even those of us who don’t eat fried chicken recognize the aroma of this local grocery store favorite.

Since last August Ukrop’s Super Market Inc. has been saving the oil used in their chicken fryers and turning it into biodiesel for its truck fleet.

This is all possible because of a partnership with Reco Biodiesel, LLC.

In the back of 27 Ukrop's stores, 250-gallon plastic containers house the oil that is then picked up from Reco. Reco processes the oil into biodiesel, the first step.

Next Southside Fuel picks up the biodiesel and blends the fuel with the diesel, creating the B15 fuel blend that is used for Ukrop's fleet of 15 trucks.

“We processed our first biodiesel in late September, early October of '08 and then we started fueling our trucks. In that amount of time we have produced 86,000 gallons of biodiesel fuel,” said Pat Hadden, director of technical services for Ukrop's.

Hear Pat Hadden explain the process in the video above.

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