Veggie Fuel

For some, the vegetable oil used is nothing but crap. But not for Chantale Doyle. Instead of seeking a petrol station, Doyle peels the lid of a steel 60-gallon vegetable oil! Yes, vegetable oil. The Volkswagen diesel van is running on vegetable oil!

"Doyle is one of a small but growing number of Canadians manage their vehicles on vegetable oil collected in grease traps of restaurants. Most are environmentalists, but free fuel is an advantage Nice. To find them, just follow the smell of French fries that emanates from their exhaust pipes, "Rebecca Dube, The Globe and Mail.

"I found it really amazing that it works so well," said Marc Amsden, a car mechanic in Quebec. Veggie oil conversions represent about half of his business. In addition, Amsden drives a converted VW Jetta itself . 'It is free fuel, but even if I buy and the cost [ten] cents more than diesel, I'd still do it because you are helping the environment. "

The fact is that any diesel car can be converted to run on oil vegetables. Rudolf Diesel for his part, used peanut oil for fuel when he invented the engine in the 1890s. Converting a diesel engine requires installing a second fuel tank in the same time a mechanism for heating oil.

"If you take something like that, it's really hard not to consider all aspects of how you live. There are so many other simple things I could do," said Doyle. "I want to propose People there are so many changes you can make in your daily life that add up.

Comments on van vegetables Doyle is very diverse. And it is not always in the way it should. Some restaurant owners are so overwhelmed by a demand for used grease instantly they refuse - even if they have to pay someone to haul it away for them, says Dube.

"Some people are like," What do you want? You want what? "On the other hand, Doyle met with some of the most enthusiastic audiences in small towns in the southern United States." You go to a general store and immediately you need is a crowd around you, " she recalls. "One guy in my mind, it was really rural Mississippi, and he was more genuinely concerned and informed about the state of the environment that the people I met in New York. People are always surprised me. "

"I see a lot more people do," says Damian Kettlewell of Vancouver, who converted his Mercedes-Benz station wagon three years ago. It fuels with grease from the pub where he works. "People are really intrigued. They believe that it's cool and they ask lots of questions. "

Dylan Perceval-Maxwell, owner of a hemp shop in Quebec, says people run after him into the street to ask about his veggie-oil powered VW Golf. His motives were "purely environmental," he said, "but when I'm driving, the biggest benefit is the pleasure of the people's reactions." Good thing that the fuel would not damage his VW wheel bearing and other essential parts.

Perceval-Maxwell is trying to compile a database of drivers Vegetable Fuel in Canada, to share tips on where to find good fats as well as information on cars that meet the best and worst to conversion, says -Dubed.

Mileage used vegetable oil is almost similar to that of regular diesel fuel, and oil helps the engine last longer, "said Amsden. The big difference is on the exhaust pipe, where the vehicles are vegetable oil carbon-neutral. Exhaust pipes output less carbon dioxide and emit less pollutants than conventional motors.