Feature Article September 30, 2004
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Bio-diesel a way around record fuel pricesIts hard not to feel powerless pulling up at the pumps these days. With oil prices hitting an all time record high this week, gasoline prices could hit 90 cents per litre by the weekend. The cost of getting around in a car or truck is higher than ever, and will get even higher still. The only thing we can control is the fuel efficiency of our vehicles. That has made some of the fuel efficient diesel vehicles an attractive option.
They can be more attractive still if drivers can make their own fuel, at a minimal price. The solution is as near as the back of any restaurant, where vats of spent fryer oil sit.
In a process that seems to come out of a rejected Red Green script meeting, it turns out to be relatively easy to filter the leftover bits of food and then, through the introduction of the right amount of lye, separate out glycerin from the oil and produce a fuel that can power any diesel engine.
As much as 70% of the spent fry oil can be turned into fuel, leaving a byproduct that is basically a soap. In fact the entire procedure resembles the process for making soap. The major drawback of the fuel that is produced is its freezing point, which is relatively high, and this can have an impact in the winter time. This can be overcome by mixing the fuel with regular diesel, or by keeping vehicles plugged in when not in use.
Making diesel fuel at home is one edge of a more mainstream effort at producing bio-diesel on a commercial basis to be mixed in with regular diesel. This is similar to the introduction of ethanol into gasoline.
In the United States, where the incentive to break the nations dependency on a fuel that is increasingly coming into the hands of its global enemies is growing, Bio-diesel has been receiving much attention. It involves growing crops specifically to be turned into fuel, Soy and Canola being among the most popular ones, and then building processing plants. There have also been efforts in California to harness the power of spent restaurant oil on a large scale.
In 1999, there were 500,000 gallons of Biodiesel sold in the United States. By 2000, that jumped to two million gallons. In 2001 it was five million, and last year, 15 million gallons of biodiesel were sold.
While biodiesel use has increased by 30 times in only four years, it is still only a fraction of the amount of diesel burned in the United States each year.
Factors are now in place, however, that are pushing forward the Biodiesel industry, which has been promoted in the past as an environmentally friendly fuel because it is less polluting than traditional diesel or gasoline (emissions are as much as 80% cleaner than regular Diesel fuel). Although a recent endorsement by US President George Bush may have more to do with him trying to be re-elected in the face of the situation in Iraq than a sudden desire to promote environmentally friendly fuel options, it is being seized by Biodiesel advocates. The auto companies in the United States, who have never taken an interest in producing diesel powered passenger vehicles, all have diesel pickup trucks on the market and Diesel cars are in the works. Meanwhile German auto-makers Mercedes and Volkswagon have been producing Diesel powered cars for many years, and Volkswagon has been promoting fuel economy in its diesel powered cars as a major selling point.
(There is a large amount of information on Biodiesel on he web, including several sights devoted to the home production of deisel. One such sight is http://www.journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_make.html )
