Reader Kevin Bahrt sent this story of the Lovecraft Biofuels using vegetable oil to power diesel engines:

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/03/lovecraft_biofu.php
http://www.lovecraftbiofuels.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

Apparently diesel engines can now be converted to use regular vegetable oil (not bio-diesel). Not only that the most effective kind of veggie oil is used. The leading consumer of veggie oil (restaurants) has to pay a disposal fee. They can give away the used veggie oil as fuel at less cost than throwing it away. The only problem I can see is the government could step in to “protect” the jobs of petro-oil companies and gas stations.

The best solution I can think of is that the gas stations could purchase said modified diesels to drive around the city picking up used veggie oil and take it to a centralized location, that won’t be clogged up with people trying to eat, and selling it at, oh say, 5 cents a gallon. Because they are essentially picking up the fuel for the trucks either for free or extremely cheap they can sell at a very low cost for almost pure profit. Honestly 5 cents a gallon for a finders/collectors fee and me not having to strike a deal with the restaurants that others may be competing for sounds fair. Not only that but because most people cook with veggie oil anyway if prices get to high a lot of people can just pool their used veggie oil.

Found out about this on history channel special about renewable energy.

Of course, obesity rates would skyrocket. Imagine how hungry you’ll be driving around in a car that persistently smells like fries!

Seriously though, I hope Lovecraft expands out from Oregon and California. The rest of this country could certainly use more renewable energies. Energy independence will significantly boost our economy. Our dependence on foreign oil will put a huge economic strain on us fairly soon. I’m sure most of us are feeling it already with soaring energy costs and gas prices.

Thanks for the heads up Kevin!

[Via Treehugger, History Channel, and Lovecraft Biofuels]

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 16th, 2008 at 11:05 am and is filed under The Future, Green. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.