Americans are Forgoing Gas Pumps for Deep Fryers
Friday, August 08 2008 | Comments (0)
Albert Diesel operated
his engines off of veggie oil...
This week, Reality Bug recapped on a 30 Days episode that aired during its first season called “Off the Grid”. In it, Morgan Spurlock introduced the world to two big city friends who went to live for a month in a eco village that was completely self sufficient. This was immediately evident to the friends when they got picked up at the airport in a bio-diesel car that ran off of vegetable oil.
How is a bio-diesel it able to run off of vegetable oil? Bio-diesel is renewable and comes from crops like corn and soybeans. If more Americans used this energy source, which pollutes much, much less than petroleum fuel, it could make the United States energy self-sufficient. It could possibly end refueling at the pump and gas prices would drop like a boulder through tissue paper.
But let’s not get it twisted: this whole bio-diesel concept is nothing new. Back at the 1900 Paris Exposition, Rudolf Diesel introduced his eponymous engine there and started it up with the words “Peanut oil”. His idea was that people could drive horse-less carriages and grow their own fuel to boot. It wasn’t until the 1920’s that petroleum was introduced to fill up gas tanks.
Nowadays with the war in Iraq, rising gas prices, a questionable economy and concern for the environment people are inspired to revisit the idea that old man Diesel had over a century ago- grow your own damn fuel or at the very least get a cheaper, more efficient source.
Here enters vegetable oil…
Your new fill up station...
The diesel engine originally was intended to run off of veggie oil but many Americans don’t grow peanuts if they even have a garden at all. So where do we get large amounts of veggie oil from in this day and age?
The answer is right underneath your nose… or the paper bag your lunch came in.
America is a fast food nation. We love fried foods especially French fries. According to www.foodreference.com, McDonald’s uses 7% of America’s potato crop to make their famous fries. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that the average American eats about 24 pounds of French fries a year.
That is a lot of oil to fry those spuds in…
What many people do when they have their bio-diesel car to run off of veggie oil by companies like Greasecar, is that they go to restaurants or diners to pick up the old deep fryer oil from their kitchen. This is a three way benefit- 1) the establishments don’t have to pay a disposal fee, 2) the landfills and the wildlife are saved from the oil which would turn into a pollutant, and 3) the driver gets cheap fuels which enables him or her to drive virtually free while everyone else is stressing at the gas pump.
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