Slap chips or clean cars?
2007-03-13 11:31
Philadelphia - After a good meal, how
about asking the head waiter if you can take the waste grease
from the kitchen to fuel your car?
In the search for sustainable and non-polluting alternatives
to fossil fuels, a small band of ecologically minded people are
turning to vegetable oil and recycled restaurant grease to run
their cars, trucks and even home-heating systems.
Entrepreneurs, some backed by public funds, are proving cars
can be run on low-cost materials that are a readily available
alternative to environmentally damaging fossil fuels.
One driver, Scotsman Antony Berretti, is so keen on the
technology that according to his website he spent three months
driving his home-converted Fiat van all the way around Europe
powered by waste vegetable oil scrounged from restaurants.
In Easthampton, Massachusetts, Greasecar Vegetable Fuel
Systems makes conversion kits for cars to run on vegetable oil.
The company has sold about 3 500 kits during its nine years in
business, and says sales have been doubling annually in the last
few years.
The kits are priced between $800 and $2 000 and users
typically get used vegetable oil from local restaurants that are
happy to give it away because they usually have to pay for
disposal.
Reducing CO2 emissions
Fuel consumption for vegetable oil is similar to diesel,
which gets 20 to 30% better mileage than gasoline.
Emissions are much less toxic than those from gasoline, and it's
carbon neutral because the carbon dioxide absorbed by the plant
from which the oil is derived offsets CO2 generated when it is
used as fuel.
In Philadelphia, a small company is finding a use for
another restaurant by-product.
Philadelphia Fry-O-Diesel converts the foul brown grease
from restaurant sink traps into usable, clean-burning biodiesel
fuel for heating and transportation.
The project promises to make a modest contribution to
reducing carbon dioxide emissions and US dependence on fossil
fuels, highlighted by President George W Bush's recent call for
a 20% cut in gasoline consumption in the next 10 years.
Fry-O-Diesel and North American Biofuels, based in Long
Island, New York, are believed to be the only US companies
making biofuels from trap grease.