The word is getting out about diesel. This article appeared in today's
Washington Post:
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Grease Guzzlers
These Folks Fuel Their Diesel Cars With Cooking Oil. Slick, Huh?
By Allan Lengel
<http://projects.washingtonpost.com/staff/email/allan+lengel/>
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, July 1, 2006; Page B01
In these days of eye-popping gas prices, Mike Leahy gets fuel for his
Volkswagen Beetle at the Barking Dog, a popular Bethesda pub. Shane
Sellers fuels up at a Chinese restaurant in Frederick. And Ben Tonken
heads to a Tex-Mex eatery in the District.
"There's a bit of a smell when you get out," said Leahy, a D.C. lawyer.
"A slight french fry smell. I kind of like it; it's kind of sweet. It
smells better than diesel."
Welcome to the world of greasel -- the shorthand some use for grease and
diesel. Leahy and the others are among a tiny but growing band of
environmentalists and thrifty consumers who are turning to restaurants
for free, used vegetable oil to fuel their diesel-engine cars.
With a little filtration and a car conversion kit, oil that once fried
potatoes, egg rolls or tortilla chips is ready for its second act: air
pollution fighter.
Sure, saving the world would be nice. But these folks don't really
expect to. Most seem to be getting their hands greasy more to prove a
point: There are alternatives to fossil fuels, and vegetable oil,
according to studies, burns cleaner than diesel fuel. What's more, it
can save money.
As for performance, drivers say there's virtually no difference. Wear
and tear on the engine is the same, as is acceleration. So is gas
mileage: about 40 to 55 miles per gallon, depending on the vehicle.
When Sellers, 31, bought an $800 conversion kit two years ago, "it had
nothing to do with fuel prices; it was just a decision on having some
sort of independence and challenging the use of fossil fuels," said the
adjunct professor of art at Frederick Community College.
But with gas prices skyrocketing, he's saving $80 to $100 a month.
Sellers is already on his second grease car, a 2002 VW Golf hatchback.
He installed the conversion kit himself, but those who lack the
mechanical chops pay an average of $900 to have it done. Installation in
trucks can cost as much as $2,500.
Sellers's car still uses diesel when it has to. But once the engine and
the vegetable oil warm up, he flips a switch to convert to vegetable
oil, which is stored in a separate fuel tank. He burns through about 30
gallons a month, mostly canola oil.
The concept of vegetable oil as fuel is more back-to-the-future than
leading edge. In 1900, an engineer named Rudolf Diesel used peanut oil
to demonstrate his new high-compression engine at the World Exposition
in Paris. Historians say he hoped that small-scale farmers would be able
to "grow" their own fuel. But petroleum-based fuels soon became
plentiful and cheap and wound up the fuel of choice.
More than 100 years after the world's fair, the "greasers," as some
enthusiasts call themselves, are once again piquing the public's curiosity.
About a half-dozen times a day, as businessman Ben Tonken's silver 2002
VW Jetta station wagon idles at a red light, fellow motorists pepper him
with questions after spotting the car's "powered by vegetable oil" decal.
"Some people laugh," said Tonken, 32, of Rockville, as he drove in
Northwest Washington. "That's unfortunate. They're the nonbelievers."
Jim Hickey, 46, of New Market also gets his share of wisecracks as he
drives his 1984 Volvo equipped with a VW diesel engine. He fuels his car
with canola oil that has fried tempura shrimp, vegetables and chicken at
The Orchard, his whole-foods restaurant in Frederick.
"It smells more like a chicken barbecue," Hickey said. "Everyone laughs
about it." And some ask: "How's the tempura taxi running?"
Jokes aside, the idea is catching on, said Lee Briante, a spokesman for
Greasecar in Amherst, Mass., one of the largest manufacturers of
conversion kits.
The company has gone from selling about 20 kits a month in 2000 to as
many as 100 a week this year, he said. In its six years of existence,
the company has sold 3,000 kits nationwide, including 50 in Virginia, 30
in Maryland and 10 in the District.
"In general, we see a direct relationship with fuel prices to sales,"
Briante said. "Over the last two years, I'd say more folks just can't
afford to run their vehicles."
There is no official count of the number of U.S. vehicles fueled by pure
vegetable oil. Briante and Charles Anderson, owner of Golden Fuel
Systems of Springfield, Mo. , another leading manufacturer of conversion
kits, guess that there are 8,000 to 10,000.
Still, Jonathan Overly, executive director of the East Tennessee Clean
Fuels Coalition, sees limited growth ahead. "It's really going to be
your green community," he said. And people must be determined enough to
collect used oil from restaurants.
"There's a whole lot of individuals who /don't/ want to do that," Overly
said.
Leahy, a lawyer for a wildlife conservation group, noted that the
resources are finite. "I don't think there's enough used cooking oil to
fuel the masses," he said.
A more practical option, Overly and others said, is biodiesel, a more
sophisticated formulation that combines plant or animal fats and some
form of alcohol, such as methanol. It burns cleaner than conventional
diesel fuel and requires no conversion kit for the diesel engine.
Some municipalities, including Falls Church, use biodiesel to run fleets
of trucks or buses. About 75 million gallons were produced in the United
States last year.
Another popular alternative, ethanol fuel, is a mix of fermented corn
sugar and gasoline that can be used in regular car engines. Last year,
nearly 4 billion gallons were produced across the country.
Still, the "greasers" remain true to their low-tech fuel. And for now at
least, getting grease is a cinch. Most restaurants have to pay to
dispose of it, so they're happy to give it away.
One recent evening, Leahy pulled up to the Barking Dog in downtown
Bethesda to pick up his fuel, which he would take home to filter.
As kickball players filed through the front door for a night of beer and
frivolity, owner John McManus brought out a five-gallon pickle pail for
Leahy. The pickles were long gone; soy oil sloshed to the brim.
"I wish everyone would do it," McManus said.
/Staff researcher Karl Evanzz contributed to this report./
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/30/AR2006063001765.html?referrer=email
or
http://tinyurl.com/j2hcn
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http://www.greasecar.com/kit_detail.cfm?prodID=23
or
http://tinyurl.com/llnua
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Regards
LelandJ
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