Boulder, Colorado
Out of the fryer, into the tank
By Beth Wohlberg
Camera Staff Writer
When Shawn Antaya is behind the wheel of his Volkswagen, drivers behind him can't help but hunger for french fries.
Antaya's 1985 Jetta is powered with biodiesel, an organically-produced diesel fuel made from used vegetable oil. The light blue exhaust produced by the alternative fuel smells like something from the deep fryer.
"The exhaust is behind you," the south Boulder resident said, laughing. "So everyone
behind you gets a sudden craving for (Burger King)."
But fueling others' appetites is not why Antaya tried biodiesel. Rising fuel prices in conjunction with the exploration of unspoiled places for oil development concerns him. He likes the idea of running his vehicle on renewable,
biodegradable energy, spewing fewer toxic chemicals and spurning the oil industry. He wants to raise awareness and start a grassroots effort in Boulder to promote veggie oil as a fuel.
"It's really opened my eyes to people being independent of big oil companies," Antaya said. "You
can do this yourself."
Antaya is one of many people across the country producing and using their own
biodiesel.
A self-sustaining community in northeast Missouri relies solely upon biodiesel for its
vehicles, one man in California is using waste fryer oil to make biodiesel for his Datsun diesel
pickup, and "french fry trucks" or "canola trucks" have been used in Yellowstone National Park to
raise awareness of alternative fuels.
Antaya bought his turbo-diesel Jetta — biodiesel doesn't work in a gasoline engine — one year ago. At the same time, he purchased a guide to using vegetable oil as an alternative fuel and began experimenting with the concoction.
So far, he's collected about 25 gallons of used vegetable oil from Bennigan's. He mixes it with a methanol and lye mixture that pulls glycerin out of the veggie oil. The glycerin that settles at the bottom isn't waste — it can be used to make soap.
The honey-colored liquid on top of the glycerin can be poured into a diesel fuel tank.
Aside from engine problems not related to the biodiesel, Antaya said his Jetta — which had 175,000 miles on the odometer when he bought it — runs like a charm.
Antaya said he's put 500 miles on the car since going away from gas. One drawback to biodiesel is fuel economy.
According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, pure biodiesel will reduce fuel economy and power by 10 percent, so a driver will need 1.1 gallons of biodiesel for every 1 gallon of diesel fuel. But a 20 percent blend of biodiesel and diesel fuel shows almost no change.
Antaya said his biggest problems with his biodiesel is the cold weather. When the temperature drops below 28 degrees, the fuel starts to solidify, and Antaya must mix in diesel fuel before frying,
er, firing up the engine.
For more information on biodiesel, e-mail antaya_s@hotmail.com, or visit
www.veggievan.org, or check out the guide Antaya used — "From the Fryer to the Fuel Tank: The Complete Guide to Using Vegetable Oil as an Alternative Fuel" by Joshua and Kaia
Tickell, which will have a third edition this month.
Contact Beth Wohlberg at (303) 473-1364 or wohlbergb@thedailycamera.com.
January 3, 2001
U.K news
Tax man cometh for car that runs on chip fat
By Robert Mendick and Julian Champkin
22 October 2000
The Chancellor of the Exchequer has entered a bizarre dispute with a man who runs his car on
old chip pan oil, and claims it is the fuel of the future.
Martin Steele has discovered how to manufacture a new form of diesel from the oil and runs his
Volvo estate on it. But he has been angered to find the Treasury wants to levy nearly 50p a litre in
fuel duty on the brew made in his Manchester back garden, the same as standard diesel, although
his "bio-diesel" is acknowledged as a green alternative.
Now Gordon Brown is considering a special tax reduction for the fuel and on Wednesday his
officials will meet Britain's handful of bio-diesel manufacturers.
There are just five – including Mr Steele – and they are demanding Mr Brown cuts tax on bio-diesel by a minimum 15p. That would give a fillip to the nascent industry and lead to the fuel being sold at petrol stations for as little as
40p a litre.
Proponents of the new fuel, made from recycled vegetable oil, claim it is carbon neutral because it
absorbs as much of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide as it produces. Nor does it rely on
dwindling, underground oil reserves because the fuel is a by-product of crops such as oil seed rape.
Greenpeace has just lodged an order for 1,000 litres of fuel from a firm called Ebony Solutions, the
only commercial manufacturer of bio-diesel in the UK.
The firm, based in Cheshire, produces 20,000 litres a week of bio-diesel by recycling vegetable oil donated by
Sharwood's, the food
manufacturer. The oil is left over from its mass production of its popular range of
poppadoms. Mr
Steele's oil comes from more humble origins, his local chippy and kebab shops, who give it free.
But he is not fussy about the source of his car's propulsion, merely evangelistic about its benefits.
A sign in large yellow letters in the car's rear windscreen proclaims: "This car runs on fuel made
from recycled vegetable oil". Mr Steele says: "There is an enormous reservoir of waste vegetable oil out
there. I make my fuel from waste oils taken from canteen refectories, chip shops and other
fast-food outlets such as kebab bars."
Mr Steele became aware of bio-diesel after watching an item on alternative fuels on the children's
television programme Newsround. He began experimenting in his mother's garage before building a
"catalytic cracker" in his backyard – a sort of large vat – in which he converts the vegetable oil
into diesel. In the two years since he perfected his technique, his car has travelled 18,000 miles on
used chip pan oil.
Representatives of the nascent bio-diesel industry will meet Stephen
Timms, the Financial Secretary
to the Treasury, on Wednesday to stake their case for a reduction in tax.
They will try to persuade the Government that a tax reduction will make the fuel attractive to commercial
manufact- urers while helping to end the West's reliance on Opec's oil-pricing cartel. At present they pay 48.8p per
litre.
It could also boost Britain's farming industry six weeks after farmers and road
haulers brought the
country to its knees by blocking oil depots.
Estimates show 5 per cent of Britain's diesel could be manufactured in the UK through vegetable oil crops such as rape seed, providing a huge financial benefit to farmers. Terry de
Winne, a 60-year-old hovercraft engineer, is also making bio-diesel at his workshop in Bangor in Northern Ireland. He began experimenting with alternative fuels after receiving a Millennium Commission grant to investigate sustainable forms of energy for transport. What he came up with is bio-diesel.
"It is the only viable, available and sustainable transport fuel," he says. He hopes to set up four large scale bio-diesel plants in Northern Ireland but needs the Chancellor to bring down tax to make it economically attractive.
A Treasury spokeswoman confirmed that Mr Brown is reviewing the level of taxation on bio-fuels in the run-up tohis pre-budget report due next month, and the Department for the Environment is examining its environmental benefits.
Cincinnati, Ohio
The Cincinnati Post
Kitchen grease to fuel buses
By Andrew Conte, Post staff reporter
http://www.cincypost.com/news/diesel070800.html
Hungry motorists might not mind getting stuck behind buses in Cincinnati this summer during the nation's first major test of a new fuel made from fast-food grease. Noxious black clouds of bus exhaust will give way to the smell of french fries or popcorn as both Metro and TANK begin filling their vehicles later this month with the new fuel. Called biodiesel, it is literally made from leftover french-fry oil.
''If you're driving down the road and you get a craving for french fries, it may not be McDonald's,'' said Allen Freeman, spokesman for the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments. ''It could be the bus in front of you.''
The transit agencies are involved in the largest American biodiesel program ever, and they are the
first to use federal grant money to purchase the fuel. The experiment could determine the future commercial viability for using biodiesel, which runs cleaner than petroleum and reduces American dependence on foreign oil producers.
The agencies have contracted with Griffin Industries, a supplier based in Cold Spring, Ky., and are each receiving $50,000 in federal grants to offset the higher cost of the new fuel. Metro and TANK will then mix the fuel with regular diesel to create a half-million gallons of the combined product,
said Rick Geise, Griffin's marketing director. That should be enough to last through at least July and
August, the region's smoggiest months.
With abundant supplies of fast-food grease - American companies throw out about three billion
gallons of vegetable oil annually - biodiesel is emerging as a leading alternative fuel for
diesel-powered vehicles.
The fuel requires few, if any, adjustments to diesel engines, and it emits fewer toxins or pollutants that create smog. Perhaps best of all, virtually everyone who eats out helps make the end product, Geise said.
''This is the first program where the large majority of customers have actually con tributed to the fuel,'' he said. ''Rest assured, if you have eaten out at a fast-food restaurant in the last 18 months, you have contributed to the production of biodiesel.''
Until now, the biggest hurdle to mass consumption of the product has been cost. Two years ago, it topped $2.50 a gallon but prices have since fallen to about $1.50 a gallon before taxes.
That remains a stretch from Metro's current diesel contract at about 50 cents a gallon, but the gap has started closing with retail prices. Nationwide, diesel fuel costs $1.50 at the pump.
Proponents now figure their main obstacle will be educating the public.
Josh Tickell traveled the country three years ago in a vehicle he dubbed ''The Veggie Van'' to prove that biodiesel could be used by just about anyone. He mixed his own fuel, picking up leftover oil from fast-food restaurants as he traveled.
Homemade, the fuel basically requires mixing alcohol, a catalyst and vegetable oil. The oil
molecules split and reattach to the alcohol, thinning out the original waste product. The fuel is non-toxic and quickly degrades into organic residues in the environment, according to industry literature.
''The nice thing about biodiesel is that you just pour it in,'' Tickell said.
Companies such as Griffin make cleaner, regulated versions of virtually the same product. The company has been in the business of collecting the discarded restaurant grease for years, using it as an additive that gives animal feed flavor and additional calories.
Since starting to use the grease as a fuel, the biodiesel industry's biggest competition has been from
companies selling a similar product made from raw soybean oil. Soy diesel requires a couple more
manufacturing steps and costs a little more. In his best-case scenario, Tickell predicts diesel stations
nationwide will start using some form of biodiesel within five years.
Publication date: 07-08-00
Biodiesel in Ireland
Bio diesel 'fuel of future'BANGOR man Terry de Winne may have found the answer to some of Northern Ireland farmers' problems.
he says.
"It has great potential; takes one hectare of farmland to produce a tonne
of biodiesel, and could create badly needed jobs in the UK agricultural sector."
"Germany plans to produce 410,000 tonnes of biodiesel this year, mainly from rapeseed oil."
"France makes it from sunflower seed, and almost every litre of diesel fuel you buy at the pumps is laced with 5% biodiesel to compensate for the lack of lubrication of ultra-low sulphur diesel fuel."Terry, a long-term advocate of a cleaner environment, is angry with the farming community."
"They should wake up to the fact that there is great potential in this. No-one is taking pro-active steps to introduce renewable fuels." Since looking at sustainable transport fuels he has done a complete survey of all the f fuels that could be available, and come up with biodiesel as being the most beneficial. And he says this can be qualified for any one of a dozen different reasons.
There is also, he says, enough land available to grow the crops necessary to biodiesel production.
"We have lost half-a-million acres of land in Northern Ireland since 1939. No-one can tell me where it has gone, except that about 70,000 acres have gone over to buildings, home and the creation of 'brown' sites and roads. So 400,000 acres have disappeared.
"This land, if we can find it, could be used to grow renewables.
"What we need is the capital upfront to enable this to come about.
That's what the farmers' organizations should be doing something about."
"I believe an extra 20,000 jobs could be created in rural areas producing incomes that were never there before.
"It is all very well talking about B&B businesses. But in 20 years or so there will be no tourists as fuel will be so expense no-one will be able to afford trips to the countryside.
"Since Colonel Drake's first oil well of 1850 half the world's known and potential reserves have been consumed. The prognosis is exhaustion within sixty years or at the present rate of 2% increase in consumption, forty years.
"All this tinkering, such as low road taxes for small cars and the like is only playing with the problem. What is required is a common sense, global look at the situation and a bit of lateral thinking."Terry feels there should be a strong lobby for the creation of a British biodiesel industry.
The net cost to the Exchequer would be small, but there would be a need to reduce tax imposed on this eco-friendly fuel.
"There are already excellent precedents for fiscal incentives on transport fuels.
"We have reduced tax for unleaded - green - petrol; for low sulphur diesel and almost no tax for red diesel for non transport users.
"Biodiesel is the next big opportunity on this sensible route of incentives.
"Think of the benefits of biodiesel. It is less toxic than table salt and less irritating to the skin than soap.
"Compared to fossil diesel it is virtually harmless to aquatic life, making it particularly useful in enclosed freshwater or marine environments.
"Biodiesel is the first alternative fuel to complete clean air tests in America and the results were announced only a few days ago," he adds.
"These tests show biodiesel poses no health threats and its use results in a 90% reduction in air toxins.
"Sales are soaring in the States as bus and truck fleets have found it the most cost-effective option for meeting Energy Policy Act Requirements© Copyright Belfast Telegraph Newspapers Ltd.
More News from the UK
One motorist who has been protesting at the price of fuel for years is Salford window cleaning contractor Martin Steele - he makes his own! Using waste oil and fats from his local chippies, Martin processes these in his garage to make an eco-friendly fuel called biodiesel, on which he runs his Volvo estate car. "It's as much for the environment as for the money savings," Martin explains, "the biodiesel doesn't add greenhouse gases to the atmosphere - all the carbon dioxide has been absorbed by the plants the year before. Every litre I use in my car stops another litre of petrodiesel being used, and the emissions don't cause cancer." Each litre of biodiesel that Martin makes costs him about 12p - but his complaint is that he then has to pay Customs and Excise another 54p a litre in road fuel tax. "It defeats the object of the exercise," he says. "The government talks about saving the environment and cutting down on emissions, but taxes biodiesel at the highest rate in the world. It's daft!" Government attitude, he claims, stems from a wrong calculation in a report to the government back in 1996. "One wrong figure in the report has set biodiesel production in the UK back by five years, costing hundreds of jobs. Seven countries in the EEC don't tax biodiesel at all - Germany has been producing commercially since 1992 and, this year, plans to produce over 400,000 tonnes. The USA Congress has just given the final seal of good housekeeping to the fuel, which means biodiesel has passed all their stiff health regulations. The UK has become a laughing stock." One of Martin's achievements has been to persuade a friend in Northern Ireland to set up a biodiesel plant, the same as his own. This has just made the headlines in the province's major newspaper, and an invitation has already been extended to address the Agricultural Committee of the Northern Ireland Assembly - a measure of what local politics can achieve. In the meantime, both men must pay a devastating tax on what could be a promising fuel for the future - made from waste chippie oil!
When Bernie Tao talks to farmers, he tells them that they're oil barons.
The oil they control isn't below the ground, however. It's growing on top, contained in the corn and soybean plants
in their fields. It may be green gold instead of black gold, but Tao predicts that over the next
several decades, plant oil will become just as essential to everyday life as fossil fuels are today. For the rest of the story go to Breakthrough in Idaho!
By Don Comis For the rest of the story go to Pacific Whale Foundation's Eco-Adventures To Be Powered For the rest of the story go to
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