23-05-04
As US grapples with pumped-up gas prices, car owners are turning to their
favourite restaurants for a solution: recycled vegetable oil. 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.
"Oh, I zip around town, go fast on highways. It's not any
different," said Kantor, 58, of Weston, Connecticut. Restaurants have to
pay to get rid of their old vegetable oil and are happy to give it away for
free.
The restaurant's only oil collector, Bridgeport resident Aaron Schlechter,
says he picks up about 30 or 40 gallons twice a month from Eli's. He uses it to
fuel his car for his 170-mile commute every day to his job as an environmental
consultant in Staten Island, New York. Vegetable oil is becoming such a rage that a Massachusetts company called
Greasecar, is buying it in bulk from a distributor and selling it to local
customers. It sells for 90 cents a gallon, said company founder Justin Carven.
Since 2001, Greasecar has also been selling conversion kits, like the one in
Kantor's car, that allow diesel cars to run on the recycled oil. The kits only
work on diesel engines. About 200 kits were sold in the past year, Carven said.
A standard conversion kit sells for $ 800 at Greasecar.
Using the conversion kit, the car must be started and stopped on diesel fuel.
A separate fuel tank is installed to hold the vegetable oil. Once the car is
running and the vegetable oil has heated up, it can be switched over to run on
just the vegetable oil. The oil must be heated because it is thicker and tends
to congeal in the cold weather, Carven said.
Although the Environmental Protection Agency has given a stamp of approval
for vegetable-based biodiesel, it hasn't approved any recycled oil for sale,
said Christine Sansevero, an environmental engineer for EPA.
Biodiesel is a fuel derived from plant oil or animal fat, Sansevero said. It
can be used in pure form but it is often blended with regular diesel. The most
common form is B20 -- a blend of 20 % biodiesel and 80 % petroleum diesel.
The Healing Waters Band had a Greasecar conversion kit installed in its bus
for a recent seven-week tour across the country. The band used a blended
biodiesel mix to start and stop the engine, and vegetable oil for the rest. The
band left its hometown of San Diego on a full tank of vegetable oil and then
filled up again at a Chinese restaurant in Missouri before buying 500 gallons
during a stop at Greasecar in Massachusetts.
In Connecticut, Kantor is hoping to start her own small distribution centre
so she and others won't have to rely so heavily on restaurants for fuel.
Source: APSome US car owners fuel their vehicles with 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.
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.
"It saves us a couple of dollars and it helps to save the environment a bit
so I thought, 'Why not?"' said Shawn Reilly, a co-owner of Eli's On
Whitney, a restaurant in Hamden, Connecticut. Reilly estimates that it costs
between $ 40 and $ 60 a month to have the oil removed otherwise.
"The only way that I can assuage my guilt by driving this awful distance is
by driving something that isn't consuming fossil fuels and has much more
environmentally friendly emissions," Schlechter, 29, said.
"Once you install it, though, you are saving hundreds and hundreds of
dollars, " he said. "The product usually pays for itself within the
first year."
Similarly, Liquid Solar in Ithaca, New York, has contracts with a few local
restaurants to collect their used vegetable oil.And in Santa Rosa, California, a
group of 50 people have formed a co-op to buy the oil in bulk from a local
manufacturer and then filter it for their own use.
"You just don't know what's in that oil," she said. "There could
be metals, other chemicals that, when burned, could create something you didn't
intend to burn. It could also be fine, but it's an unknown."
Veggie car owners agree that biodiesel is another renewable fuel source, but say
it isn't as cost effective or eco-friendly. Pure biodiesel costs about $ 1 more
a gallon than diesel, Sansevero said. B20 costs about 20 cents more a gallon
than diesel, she said. The trend is catching on, especially for those who have a
distance to drive.
"We only spent $ 200 that would have normally cost us about $ 1,200, and we
probably could have done it all for free if we kept stopping (at
restaurants)," said Tony Thorpe, 34, a bassist and vocalist for the band.
"You know that expression, 'If you build it, they will come.' Well, if we
makeit accessible, people will use it," Kantor said.