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Veggie: Would You Use
Veggie: Would You Use
Veggie
Oil Vehicle?
Vegetable oil can
power your vehicle, T
to Fuel Your
his may sound strange, but you
can run your diesel car or truck on
vegetable oil and nearly eliminate
your use of traditional gas or diesel. For cer-
By Tim Wacker
but growing, part of the population that’s
passionate about using grease to make their
cars go. These people are drawn to this al-
ternative fuel because it saves them money,
but the effects on tain people, veggie oil could lead to major
savings. Called veggie cars or grease cars,
gives them more control of their transpor-
tation fuel needs and makes a difference for
the environment these vehicles have fuel systems modified to
burn both diesel fuel and straight vegetable
the environment.
All this may sound too good to be
are still unclear. oil. The idea is actually a modern twist on
the original intention for the diesel engine.
true, and in some ways it is. Is it the most
Veggie-capable Vehicles
Finding just the right car to burn
vegetable oil can be more challenging.
First and foremost, it has to have a
diesel engine. The best cars to convert
tend to be older models, according to
• In May 2007 in Charlotte, N.C., Robert Teixeira was fined There is also a concern that vegetable oil cars might violate the
$1,000 for failing to pay taxes on the vegetable oil he burns in federal Clean Air Act. The Act bans tinkering with auto emissions by
his 1981 Mercedes. anyone who doesn’t have EPA certification to do so, according to
• Two months before that David and Eileen Wetzel, of Decatur, spokesperson John Millett. Using vegetable oil instead of diesel fuel
Ill., were told they needed to be licensed as a special fuel sup- could quite likely affect the emissions from your car, Millett says.
plier if they wanted to keep “Also, a vehicle has to be modi-
driving their veggie car or face fied to run on vegetable oil.” Jones
possible felony fines for not says. “Such a modification is not
paying fuel taxes. legal unless it has been through
If you buy veggie oil that is in- an emissions certification proce-
tended to be used as fuel, the taxes dure — this is different than just
have already been paid by your registering the fuel — to ensure that
supplier. Dave Dunham, owner of German inventor Rudolf Diesel the modified vehicle itself meets
Smarter Fuel in Bethlehem, Pa., is emission standards.”
paying a lot of taxes on the used originally designed his engine With some state laws still very
vegetable oil he gathers for free. much up in the air, there are ways
bumper stickers: needasticker.com (2)
He collects hundreds of thousands to run on ... vegetable oil! to play it safe if you’re not sure if
of gallons of oil from about 1,000 you should be paying taxes or not.
restaurants stretched across five On his Web site www.biodieselnow.
states. Then he cleans it up and resells it for about $1.95 per gallon, com, Graydon Blair, owner of Utah Biodiesel Supply, a parts distributor
depending on state taxes. Since the taxes are already accounted for, for home biodiesel brewers, suggests you keep a log of the gallons of
consumers don’t need to report and pay the fuel tax individually. biodiesel or veggie oil you burn. Then if you do get into trouble with the
The federal government does require you to fill out the neces- state tax authorities you can produce the log and tell them you plan on
sary registration forms to make biodiesel for your car but it does not paying at tax time. State and federal income tax forms have provisions
charge a fee for doing so, according to Enesta Jones, a spokesperson for paying fuel taxes, Blair says. (Consult your tax advisor for details on
for the EPA. how to best handle taxes in your state. — Mother)
sit for a week before drawing off everything “People think vegetable oil and biodie-
above the dregs. Before they pour that into sel are the same; they are not,” says Joshua
their trucks, they filter it again. Tickell, author of Biodiesel America.
Pollution-wise, the differences be- “Modern diesels are not made to run on
tween burning new and used vegetable straight vegetable oil (SVO). The SVO
oil are less stark. William Kemp, in his concept distracts from the huge potential
book Biodiesel Basics and Beyond (see Page of the biodiesel industry. There is no pros-
135 to order), says that new and used oil pect for straight vegetable oil being a reli-
just about tie on soot and nitrogen oxide able fuel,” Tickell says.
emissions, while waste oil puts out more There are numerous fans of veggie oil
carbon monoxide, and new oil puts out fuel, though, who have come to the oppo-
more carbon dioxide. site conclusion and feel just as strongly.
When comparing vegetable oil emis- “Our conversion kits are developed and
sions to petrodiesel, the results are more tested by our engineers for each specific ap-
mixed. Diesel exhaust puts out more soot plication to ensure compatibility, and we
than veggie oil, while putting out about have many customers who have been run-
10 percent fewer hydrocarbons. But these ning successfully for almost 10 years,” says
measurements, Kemp says, don’t account Justin Carven, founder of Greasecar.
for the biggest environmental argument (These contrasting perspectives are but
in favor of vegetable oil to fuel cars: global one example of the contentious and evolv-
warming. You have to grow plants to pro- ing debate about the short- and long-term
duce vegetable oil so the carbon dioxide feasibility of biofuels. For more on their po-
emitted by burning it is captured as a new tential compared to other energy options,
crop of oil plants grows. see Page 50. — Mother)
Then there is veggie oil’s close cousin With all this in mind, the decision
(some would say rival) — biodiesel — which to use vegetable oil for fuel is one to
is vegetable oil chemically processed to consider carefully. Concerns about tax-
work like petrodiesel in standard diesel en- es and EPA regulations are significant.
gines without modifications. It is available, And for many people, filtering the veg- 8666
usually blended with petrodiesel, at hun- gie oil and the potential for mechanical
dreds of filling stations across the country. problems would be inconvenient. But
Biodiesel proponents say veggie oil fuel, for those who can embrace these chal-
particularly waste oil, will always be a low- lenges, veggie oil is a fun and empow-
volume, backyard enterprise. ering solution.