Vegetable Oil For WHAT???

Post by **Artsay** » Fri Apr 08, 2005 1:24 am

Has anyone heard anything about this biodiesel stuff? My sister is in California and told me some about it. There's a biodiesel station down the street from her that sells it for $1.10/gallon and I guess you can make it yourself real easily if you want for $.30/gallon. Don't know if Kentucky will ever catch on to this kinda of craziness but Europe has been fueling their diesel vehicles with it for like 20 years or something. Crazy...

http://www.globalstewards.org/biodiesel.htm

Post by **Yasmeen** » Fri Apr 08, 2005 1:34 am

Yeah-- I did a report on biodiesel last semester. It's a pretty cool idea. One of the guys who came down with Meadows from Dayton last fall/winter has a car that runs on biodiesel. I think there were some people who drove across the country on a biodiesel vehicle, stopping to fill up at fast-food restaurants along the way.

Post by **Kiribell** » Fri Apr 08, 2005 1:35 am

Some of the Metro buses in Cincinnati run on biodiesel. If you follow one close you'll smell french fries no joke..

Post by **lordjim_2001** » Fri Apr 08, 2005 1:43 am

Yasmeen wrote:... I think there were some people who drove across the country on a biodiesel vehicle, stopping to fill up at fast-food restaurants along the way.

They are in the spring patagonia catalog. The story was pretty cool. Makes me want to get a Jetta TDI wagon real bad.

Post by **Spragwa** » Fri Apr 08, 2005 1:49 am

I would love to have a car that ran on biodeisel. The problem is that car manufacturers haven't started producing the engines.

Oh and the emissions are almost harmless.

Post by KD » Fri Apr 08, 2005 2:00 am

i'm looking at getting a motorcycle - from what i hear synthetic fuels wont be around plentifully for several years. so i enrolled in a bike safety class and have made arrangements with my local dealer for a new sportster. my mom biked and always wanted me to but i never did. now i can't wait. 65mpg on the road!

Post by **dipsi** » Fri Apr 08, 2005 3:56 am

Yeah, I think I'm dragging my Rebel out. I'm paying enough for gas to buy a small appliance each month!

KD you should have fun in that class. I had a blast in mine and met some great people. I borrowed a helmet which was too big for me, and the instructor called me Major Asshole all weekend (read: Spaceballs) It was soooo funny!

8)

Post by **merrick** » Fri Apr 08, 2005 4:03 am

there was a good film at the banff film fest last year about the biodesial guys. pretty sweet.

my question is, how many people can take grease from fast food places and power their cars before we run out of grease. and then where does the grease come from? it probably takes energy to turn veggies into grease and where does that energy come from? burnt fossil fuels? so is there a net gain?

essentially how scalable is biodesiel? does it stay cheap and pollutant free if 2 billion people are relying on it?

Post by **Canuck** » Fri Apr 08, 2005 12:43 pm

yes, there's a net gain. because instead of running the car directly on another tankful of fossil fuel, you're running it on recycled kitchen grease which would otherwise go down the sewer or out into a landfill. yes, it requires energy (fossil fuels) to make the grease, but those were used anyway because most people aren't going to give up their super-value meals.

Post by **dhoyne** » Fri Apr 08, 2005 12:55 pm

The gain is that you're using recycled materials instead of raw virgin material. It all comes from the same place originally, but if you can use the same thing a few times, its much better.

Unfortunately, there's only a few engines out there (mostly German) stout enough to run BioDiesel...

As for supply, as long as America keeps eating fast food, there's plenty of supply.