Her car runs on vegetable oil

[CShine]

WESTON (Connecticut) - As car owners across the United States grapple with pumped-up petrol prices, some are turning to their favourite restaurants for a solution: recycled vegetable oil. Environmentalists with diesel cars have used vegetable oil for years as an alternative fuel to cut back on sooty emissions, but as petrol prices soar above 52.6 US cents (90 Singapore cents) a litre, they say their 'veggie cars' are a great way to save cash.

Every two weeks, Ms Etta Kantor drives to a local Chinese restaurant to fuel her blue Volkswagen Jetta. She calls ahead and the owner puts aside a few buckets of used oil for her. At home, Ms Kantor, 58, uses a colander and a bag filter to remove water and food particles. The vegetable oil is then poured into a 57-litre tank in the back of her Jetta, where a spare tyre would usually be kept. With a touch of a button located above the radio, she can switch from diesel fuel to vegetable oil in seconds. Restaurants that would have to pay to get rid of their old vegetable oil are happy to give it away for free.

'It saves us a couple of dollars and it helps to save the environment a bit,' said Ms Shawn Reilly, a co-owner of Eli's On Whitney, a restaurant in Hamden.

Bridgeport resident Aaron Schlechter says he picks up 114 to 152 litres twice a month from Eli's. He uses it to fuel his car for his 270km commute every day to his job as an environmental consultant in New York. 'The only way 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,' he said.

http://www.straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/world/story/0,4386,255217,00.html?

[MaryH]

1. Vegetable Oil

I saw this when it was on TV a few weeks ago. It is really great. She gets her veg. oil free because it is just old oil the restaurant would have to get rid of. She has to take the time to run it through a sieve of some sort to clean it. And it didn't really take all that much money to have her car fixed so that it would run on oil.

She who laughs last, laughs best.

[MercutioATC]

2. This has been around for years. Deisel engines can be adapted

without too much difficulty (the main requirement is a heater for the oil when the car's cold because it congeals).

[sam sarrha]

3. It needs to be refined or it will RUIN the engine..

Go to Rocky 'Mountain Survival Group' the best site for info.. or type in 'Making Bio Diesel' I am presently designing a home built system for my brother.. It has 10% the emissions of petroleum fuel.. usually mixed 20 to 40% with petroleum diesel, ..

[lojasmo]

8. Untrue

deisels can be run on refined "bio-deisel" or on SVO (straight veg oil) the only thing that needs done, is a tank heater needs to be present to heat the oil in colder climes.

[struggle4progress]

4. kick

:kick:

[Buns_of_Fire]

5. 270km = almost 168 miles

Bridgeport resident Aaron Schlechter says he picks up 114 to 152 litres twice a month from Eli's. He uses it to fuel his car for his 270km commute every day to his job as an environmental consultant in New York.

Hopefully, the money he saves partially offsets the cost of the three cases of Preparation H he must go through in a month...

[Gold Metal Flake]

6. It's not just a screen name....

Kinda interested in this. Here are a few links for the DIY folk.

http://www.veggiepower.org.uk/altindex.htm
http://www.veggiepower.org.uk/page402a.htm
http://www.oilpress.com/drive_your_diesel.htm
http://danalinscott.netfirms.com/vegoil.htm

[dArKeR]

7. 'Vegetable oil' cars can go the distance

http://iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=31&art_id=vn20040611133210275C924522&set_id=1

[BiggJawn]

9. Sounds like how they used to run John Deere and Farm-All tractors...

Get them warmed up on gasoline, then pull a valve rod and fiddle with the spark advance and run Johnny "A" on kero and the Farm-All on Diesel...Kerosene used to be cheaper than gasoline...

[samhonk]

10. Vegetable oil was Rudolf Diesel's intended fuel -

http://www.veggievan.org/biodiesel/articles/dr_diesels_invention.php

In 1911 stated “The diesel engine can be fed with vegetable oils and would help considerably in the development of agriculture of the countries which use it.” In 1912, Diesel said, “The use of vegetable oils for engine fuels may seem insignificant today. But such oils may become in course of time as important as petroleum and the coal tar products of the present time.”