Why vegetable oil works in diesel engines:
“When Rudolph Diesel invented the diesel engine, he invented it to run on vegetable oil or peanut oil,” Melville explains. “Whatever explodes inside the chamber to make the pistons run up and down will work in a diesel engine. Vegetable oil explodes at the same temperature as diesel oil.”
Dumpster diving for used kitchen grease isn’t most people’s first choice when it comes to ways to save a buck, but for journalist Greg Melville, it was a labor of love.
Part eco-awareness, part dare, Melville wanted to prove that this alternate energy option was a viable game-changer for the fuel crisis in the United States.
So the North Carolina resident grabbed his college best friend, revved up his biodiesel converted ’85 Mercedes and set out to become the first person to drive cross-country “in a french-fry car.”
While his results were mixed, the $3,000 he pocketed from using a renewable source speaks for itself.
Despite the initial expenses — $4,000 for a used diesel station wagon (their engines have a reputation for being indestructible), $1,000 for the conversion kit and another $1,000 for its installation, Melville was in the black by the end of his adventure. But how easy is it to fill ’er up when you’re depending on Applebee’s to provide the power?
“Our mission, in addition to how many miles we were going to drive, was about getting waste oil [needed to keep driving],” says Melville. “It took us three or four hours a day to get the oil and filter it.”
The process of converting waste oil into automobile fuel isn’t so simple as, say, throwing trash in the Mr. Fusion a la “Back to the Future.” Clean grease is needed to keep the veggie car operating (otherwise bacteria and water in bad grease could kill the engine). After many tribulations with dingy grease dumpsters, Melville found a pattern: “Go to Chinese, Mexican or Thai restaurants,” he says. “They don’t fry a lot of meats and they change their oil more frequently. They also use better oil, like soybean or canola.”
After ingratiating himself with restaurant owners, Melville would suck the oil out of the dumpsters himself.
Considering that in some states restaurant owners have to pay for oil to be taken away, this was generally not a problem for him.
While the concept of the mission is a simple, the actual process was clearly exhausting (excuse the pun). “It was worth it, but I’m looking forward to the day that I can have my plug-in Chevy Volt that gets a million miles to the gallon,” he says.