Drivers eye vegetable oil as cheap fuel

[CatWoman]

May 24, 2004 | WESTON, Conn. (AP) -- As the nation grapples with pumped-up gas prices, car owners are turning to their favorite restaurants for a solution: recycled vegetable oil.

Environmentalists have been using the fuel alternative for years as a way to cut back on sooty emissions, but as gas prices soar above $2 a gallon, they say their "veggie cars" are also a great way to save some cash.


Every two weeks, Etta Kantor drives to a local Chinese restaurant to fuel her blue Volkswagen Jetta. She calls ahead and the owner knows to put aside a few buckets of used oil just for her. At home, Kantor uses a colander and a bag filter to remove water and any food particles.

The vegetable oil is then poured into a 15-gallon tank that sits in the back of her Jetta, where a spare tire would usually be kept. With a touch of a button, located above the radio, Kantor can switch from diesel fuel to vegetable oil in seconds.

"Oh, I zip around town, go fast on highways. It's not any different," said Kantor, 58, of Weston.



http://www.salon.com/tech/wire/2004/05/24/veggie_car/index.html

[GOPisEvil]

1. I've seen one of these zipping around.

Aside from smelling vaguely like french fries, the car worked great. In some parts of the country, you can buy biodiesel fuel at some gas stations.

[Parche]

2. vegetable oil

Is she from WESSON CT or Weston CT
Kind of hilarious


I didnt know that vegetable oil could burn like that in cars?

Do they do Mazola oil too?

[htuttle]

4. Rumor has it that diesels were originally designed to run on it

At least that's what I've heard -- I haven't verified that fact myself.

[politicat]

6. Yes - do a google on Diesel and the invention.

Diesel never planned for the diesel engine to use petroleum products primarily - they need lubrication that plain petrol can't provide (which is why sulfur is added, which causes pollution).

Pcat

[underpants]

That really works?

Great now the freakin' Chinese will have us over a barrel.

[htuttle]

3. I've been looking for a diesel scooter or motorcycle for this very reason

But they only seem to make such a thing in China nowdays, and you can't import them.

BTW, if you want try this at home, read up on it first!

Either you'd want to process the vegetable oil to create a proper 'biodiesel' (there's one fairly easy recipe using lye to break down the oil), OR have a switch between vegetable oil and diesel (like this person apparently has). Start the engine with diesel, then switch to vegetable oil, then switch back to diesel for a few moments before you shut the engine off. It can be very difficult to start the engine on pure vegetable oil.

[monroncrief]

5. http://www.greasecar.com

The owner of the HIPPEST hippie joint here in Denver, the Mercury cafe' owns one of these and SWEARS by it. Get's hellacious mileage and she fills it with waste oil from her business- talk about recycling!

[phantom power]

7. this is promising, but

I haven't yet seen a plan for mass-producing enough biodiesel to replace fossil-fuels.

Except, maybe those guys who demonstrated their reactor that can produce oil from turkey guts and other organic waste.

[MadHound]

10. Well do you honestly think that the oil companies would do the promotion

For a competitor that could put them out of business? Honestly, biodiesel is THE way to go. At the most the only modifications you might have to make to your diesel engine is replace your neopryne fuel lines with metal ones.

Emissions from biodiesel engines are quite low, about seventy five percent less than what dino diesel puts out. The only major byproduct from processing biodiesel is glycerin, which you can turn around and use in the manufacture of soap. And biodiesel itself is bio-degradable.

We could ramp up the production of biodiesel pretty much in one growing season. Sunflower seed oil and hemp seed oil produce the most oil per pound for use, and the renewal of these crops would be a boon to the agriculture industry and the family farmer. They grow virtually anywhere and are a low maintenence crop to produce. Any diesel burning engine, whether a home generator or the power plant for a diesel burning electric plant could switch over to burning biodiesel with minimal retrofitting.

But you aren't going to "see a plan" for ramping up biodiesel fuel use anytime in the near future friend, there is still too much money for the oily robber barons to make from traditional mineral fuels. What needs to happen is for people to put the capitalistic system to use, and that is for you and me and others to start creating a demand. It is very easy to make your own biodiesel in your garage, and I guarantee you that if even ten percent of the people in this country started doing that, somebody with their eye on the ball will start producing biodiesel commercially. You start getting biodiesel stations popping up all over the country, then some bright city manager will get the idea to start using it in their diesel burning electric plant, and thus the market forces will reach critical mass and biodiesel will take off.

I've gotten a small model diesel engine to refine the quality control of my biodiesel on. By the end of the summer, I'll have a diesel Jetta to start fueling and running. What are you going to do? Here's a couple of good places to start:
<http://search.barnesandnoble.com/bookSearch/isbnInquiry.asp?sourceid=00387615287821785637&ISBN=0970722702&bfdate=05-24-2004+16:56:26>
<http://www.dancingrabbit.org/biodiesel/>

[Champion Jack]

8. Check this out

www.veggievan.org

I heard that Neil Young's last tour was in veggie-powered buses.

[Robb]

9. A source for it I hadn't heard suggested until recently...

Dear friend's brother runs his truck this way. He buys "expired" food-grade oil from supply houses that can't sell it to restaurants anymore, by the freakin' drum, practically for free. :) Advantage to this is you don't need to filter it, like you do recycled oil.

[Wapsie B]

11. I remember a story

awhile back about 2 engineering students at some U traveled across the country in a van power by waste cooking oil. But I thought this was all in the experimental stage. It'd be great if this could be done on a large scale. Just watch Amoco and BP and the like corner the cooking oil market.