Driving with Greased Lightning? I wonder what the rest of you think about this possible fuel alternative:


Grease is the word for alternative fuel

CHICAGO (UPI) -- Restaurants are filling up more than stomachs as U.S drivers turn to used grease as an alternative fuel to skyrocketing gasoline costs, market analysts say.

Increasingly, restaurants are being paid for their used cooking oil, instead of having to pay someone to take the discolored, food particle-filled goop away, the Chicago Tribune reported Friday.

Not so coincidentally, sales for kits that allow diesel-powered cars to run on the spent cooking oil also are on the rise.

Rising energy prices greased the wheels for grease%26#039;s popularity.

%26quot;It all goes back to the high price of crude oil,%26quot; said Bill Dieterichs, an analyst at The Jacobsen, a Chicago publication that follows grease and tallow markets. %26quot;That%26#039;s what started the ball rolling.%26quot;

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Additional Details

2 months ago

Biodiesel, primarily derived from soybean oil, can be made from a number of fats, including used cooking oil. With a conversion kit, grease car drivers can fill their tanks at their local eateries.

Jonathan Erber of Harvard, Ill., says he prefers the oil from Chinese restaurants to power his 1993 Chevrolet diesel pickup.

%26quot;I get higher performance from their peanut oil. I barely touch the pedal and it gets up to 60 (mph),%26quot; he said.


Copyright 2008 by United Press International

2 months ago

The point of this question is to provide an option and potentially a forum for all those interested in alternative fuels %26amp; alternative vehicles. Consider this a place to share what you think about options and solutions as per this question%26#039;s category.

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I ask because I am interested to read and possibly learn about the state of energy and potential alternatives.

2 months ago

About your answers:

Titou, your message is delivered with eloquence, %26amp; I detect, some nostalgic regret for missed opportunities to set a more solid foundation than we have. Perhaps like you, I too often feel cynical with an edge of %26quot;conspiracy theorist%26quot;. Yes, agreed, N.A. is indulging in a lustful addiction for plenty. It%26#039;s mind boggling that with the current price of gas (here $1.30/ltr = approx $4.95/U.S. gal) that some people drive a Hummer to %26quot;Piggley WIggley%26quot; to buy a pack of gum. The days of 10% of the pop. using 90% of the world%26#039;s resources are fast coming to a grinding halt. At this rate, we here will be a 3rd world nation in short order as China%26#039;s emerging needs eclipse all else.

Corporations are magnets for negative press. Worse yet, they are notorious for %26quot;eating their young%26quot; %26amp; everything else in their wake as they drive for the bottom line at all co$t. As long as we buy into shiny baubles %26amp; trinkets, they will own us lock, stock %26amp; oil barrel. TY for sharing.

2 months ago

Thank you for your answers, WinterRules, %26amp; 2N2222.

Your opinions are a cautious %26quot;wait %26amp; see%26quot;, but you aren%26#039;t %26quot;buying into the possibility%26quot; of alternate oils as a complement to diesel. Agreed, McDonald%26#039;s couldn%26#039;t fry enough food to supply en masse, but perhaps you might benefit from reading Bronwen%26#039;s answer to this same question in %26quot;Conservation%26quot;;

%26quot;The article I read featured a man who runs his farming equipment on the used grease from the McDonald%26#039;s, Burger King, and Wendy%26#039;s in the small town where he lives....Once he got all the restaurants in the area onboard with the project, he found there was more oil than he needed in their little area of the world. He figured that several other farmers in his area could use the cooking oil, and others could use oil from other towns in their county.%26quot;
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

2 months ago

QT,

I really appreciate the link to the article on Mr. Diesel%26#039;s foresights %26amp; I really learned something valuable from your answer.

%26quot;The fact that fat oils from vegetable sources
can be used may seem insignificant today,
but such oils may perhaps become in course of time of the same importance as some natural mineral oils and the tar products are now.%26quot;

Prophetic, and like you, I feel frustrated that intelligence is seldom heard, seldom acted upon - until the %26quot;11th hour%26quot;. I nearly chose your answer, until I read this quote from the article,

%26quot;In any case, they make it certain that motor-power can still be produced from the heat of the sun, which is always available for agricultural purposes, even when all our natural stores of solid and liquid fuels are exhausted.%26quot;
—Diesel

:-) Thanks to you %26amp; your amazing memory - obviously 6th grade is not that far off -, my brain has had an aerobic workout, as I hope others have had too. This should be the Best Answer... if not for Hempstead.

2 months ago

Hempstead,

I posed this question because I thought that recycling used cooking oil seemed like a great idea the day I read the article. QT educated me %26amp; now I know that this is a recycled idea...

I read your link, %26amp; at your suggestion, primed my receptors with optimism. Not only did I LEARN why solar energy is workable, but I also realized that doing (their) math leaves less room for our excuses (although my realistic side did have questions as I read). You certainly have had me doing my homework, %26amp; while I confess I felt twinges of concern over their plans for %26quot;my beloved southwest, the proposals and blog posts managed to alleviate much of my hesitation. Quite frankly, the biggest threats to solar solutions are the nay sayers %26amp; the oligopolies whose omnivorous lusts won%26#039;t be sated until everything is left sere. And I%26#039;ll bet they make Girl Scout cookies too.... :P

TY for relieving me of some of my ignorance and quelling some more of my %26quot;conspiracy theorist%26quot; tendencies :-)

Have a look at your nearest street corner. There%26#039;s a big tank truck at the gas station. There is no big tank truck at the McDonald%26#039;s, unless the driver is having lunch. There%26#039;s simply not that much waste food oil: most restaurants get it in five-gallon cans from the Sysco truck or Sam%26#039;s. Moreover, used cooking oil is reclaimed for use in animal feed, and the returns are greater.

The other problems with the various sorts of biodiesel are that (1) they won%26#039;t work in most cars at all (2) the quality varies drastically because the American Petroleum Institute isn%26#039;t there to ensure uniform quality, so you can get stuff that doesn%26#039;t work very well or clogs up your fuel pump and (3) it%26#039;s still expensive and won%26#039;t be going down in price.

Whatever the alternative, it won%26#039;t go until the major car manufacturers, the oil companies, and even the tire producers with their interests in rubber are on board.

Paranoid you say? When %26quot;Answer This%26quot; was in 1ST GRADE there was a hour-long %26#039;60 Minutes%26#039; episode which showed how these three interests, in the form of Standard Oil, General Motors, and Firestone, systematically acquired and then tore up the electric tram systems in some 30 American cities so that freeways could be built that would carry cars and buses that would use their products. My mother recalls when you could take the tramway from Santa Monica to downtown Los Angeles in comfort, taking about 30 minutes. Try that today.

Furthermore, in Los Angeles as elsewhere the original tramway engineers laid their tracks on the best geologic routes, which were then concreted over and made into the extensive parking-lots called %26quot;freeways%26quot;. Attempts to rebuild light rail in L.A. and those other cities (only 50 years later!) is impeded because of the beltways and their overpasses and so on as well as having to find or often CREATE terrain that will serve (again).