[Vwdiesel] Fw: NYTimes.com Article: Recipe for Car Power: Heat Vegetable Oil, Flip Switch and Go.

[Scott Kair]

    From another list.  Just a few short years ago, positive mention in the
New York Times was quite unlikely.
    Cheers,
    Scott Kair

----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, April 24, 2003 1:24 AM
Subject: NYTimes.com Article: Recipe for Car Power: Heat Vegetable Oil, Flip
Switch and Go.


> Recipe for Car Power: Heat Vegetable Oil, Flip Switch and Go.
>
> April 22, 2003
> By CHRIS DIXON
>
>
>
> LOS ANGELES, April 21 - "I wouldn't do this to a $30,000
> car unless I was confident that it would work."
>
> With that, John Lin, owner of a Los Angeles fast-food
> franchise, opened the door of an opulent white Ford
> Excursion.
>
> Powered by a seven-liter turbo-diesel engine that delivers
> just 13 miles a gallon, this oversize S.U.V. seemed the
> quintessential environmentalist's target. Yet soon, Mr. Lin
> will be paying less to fuel it than he would pay if he
> owned a Toyota Prius, which supplements gasoline with
> electricity. As an added benefit, he will sharply reduce
> the pollution.
>
> Mr. Lin will not use a radical new mileage-boosting
> technology, but rather he will use simple vegetable oil,
> the same cheap, plentiful and clean-burning fuel that
> Rudolf Diesel used to power his first engine at the 1900
> Paris World's Fair.
>
> Normally, a restaurateur like Mr. Lin would have to pay
> someone to haul off the 10 gallons of vegetable oil used
> each day in his fryers. The oil would be dumped in a
> landfill, or perhaps used in animal feed. Instead, Mr. Lin
> will filter his oil and pour it into a heated auxiliary
> tank on the Excursion.
>
> He will then start the vehicle on regular diesel, and after
> a few minutes, when the vegetable oil becomes more viscous
> in the heater, a manual switch will direct it to the diesel
> engine. From there, the only detectable difference will be
> the faint odor of French fries, and a noticeable lack of
> diesel stench.
>
> The change in odor, however, is not the only benefit to be
> gained. In 1998, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory
> released a study on a fuel called biodiesel. Essentially
> vegetable oil with methanol and lye added to aid
> cold-weather flow and remove glycerin, biodiesel results in
> fewer harmful emissions than petroleum-based diesel.
>
> Carbon monoxide emissions are reduced by 43 percent,
> hydrocarbons by 56 percent, particulates by 55 percent and
> sulfurs, a particular problem with petroleum diesel, are
> reduced by 100 percent.
>
> Typically, biodiesel fuel costs at least as much as regular
> diesel. But straight vegetable oil is essentially free; Mr.
> Lin says most restaurant owners are more than happy to get
> rid of it. And unlike biodiesel, it does not require
> methanol and lye. It does, however, require a fairly simple
> conversion system that consists of a vegetable oil tank and
> a fuel heater.
>
> A couple of years ago, after much online research, Mr. Lin
> bought a 1983 Mercedes 300SD Turbodiesel for $3,000 and got
> in touch with a diesel enthusiast, Charlie Anderson. Mr.
> Anderson, a farmer in Drury, Mo., had just founded a
> company called Greasel. For $500, Mr. Anderson sold Mr. Lin
> one of his first vegetable-oil-to-diesel conversion kits
> and coached Mr. Lin on installing it.
>
> "I said, If it blows up, it blows up," Mr. Lin said, "and
> I'm only out $3,000. But I installed the system, flipped
> the switch, and sure enough, the thing works."
>
> Mr. Lin found that vegetable oil led to no noticeable loss
> in power or mileage. In fact, he said, it smoothed the
> engine's idle. This came as no surprise to Mr. Anderson,
> who has now installed hundreds of systems in a variety of
> diesel vehicles - Volkswagen TDI's, tractors, large Dodge
> four-by-fours and even a used Greyhound bus. In addition,
> Greasel has sold hundreds more of its units to
> do-it-yourselfers.
>
> "Even if people are paying the same for this as diesel," he
> said, "it's just so much better for the environment. A dog
> can lick this stuff right off the ground."
>
> If biodiesel or straight vegetable oil are so much better
> as fuels, why aren't they in widespread use? Simple
> economics is how Russ Teall, a biodiesel refiner and
> president of Biodiesel Industries, sees it. "Basically the
> cost of virgin vegetable oil is too high," he said. "It
> costs from $1.65 to $2 a gallon. At the wholesale level,
> petroleum diesel varies from 60 cents to $1.20 in
> California."
>
> Mr. Teall also says a lack of transportation and refining
> infrastructure have discouraged a shift to biofuel.
>
> But Joe Jobe, president of the National Biodiesel Board,
> said this was changing rapidly as a result of smaller
> refining plants and a worldwide glut of vegetable oil.
>
> "The price of vegetable oils and diesels are beginning to
> come closer because of the growing demand for soy protein
> for food," Mr. Jobe said. "When you grind up soybeans, you
> get 80 percent soy meal and 20 percent oil." Furthermore,
> he said, biodiesel can also be made easily from waste
> restaurant oil.
>
>
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/22/science/earth/22FUEL.html?ex=1052133441&ei
=1&en=8057b190efb32d23
>
> Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company
>