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Lately, we've been hearing a lot about bands fueling their vans with vegetable oil and biodiesel fuels for cross country tours. It seems that there are a ton of folks doing this, so we're wondering why more aren't. It's cheap (usually free) and helps the environment, so why not?
According to this site, it's completely possible - the author has travelled over 2,000 miles on used grease from restaurants. The Boston Phoenix has an article on a band who has also done this, and a simple google search shows plenty more. Here's a link on running your engine on SVA (Straight Vegetable Oil).
Any New York bands out there who have personal experience with doing this?
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Before you ignorantly praise bio-fuels, maybe you should read this:
http://www.landinstitute.org/vnews/display.v/ART/2006/06/27/44ac9d0ebe58b
We need a revolution to change our energy consumption, not grow more corn.
I few weeks back on staton st, btwn ludlow and essex a RV full of hippies was stationed. A huge banner on the side told of the RV being powered by Veg. oil. I steered clear of them although it does peak my senses. I am sure its worth the cost to do this to your car. I think the process of making the fuel is the problem.
Fucking Hippies
Why don't we power our TV's and computers with flower-power as well?
why not power our TV's and computers with flower-power, you fucking fascist.
It is cheap precisely because few people are doing it.
While Brooke is correct that bio-fuels are not a sustainable fuel source, some folks have been able to use used fryolator grease to power their diesel vans (apparently it isn't that hard). That is rather different from sugar-cane or corn based fuels, which themselves, in order to grow and be cultivated, need fossil fuels and require a tremendous amount of land space.
When I was in Guatemala this spring I ran into a couple who had driven their Ford F150 truck (powered with fryolator grease) all the way from Buffalo, NY.
They were going strong. And I think they had plans to go much further.
Of course, we can't all run our cars on grease left over from french fry oil. But it is a great alternative fuel source for a few of us out there.
these guys are such fucking douches! hello! you are polluting the environment even more by having a nationwide tour. These dickheads think they are doing us a favor? If you wanted to save the environment you wouldn't use a car in the first place. It's like being proud of making a nuclear bomb that only kills a thousand people instead of millions!
Is it possible to run a pasty, stick-thin vegan on just two handfuls of tofu? Stay tuned to find out.
Isn't this what recycling and reusing is all about?
No one said that we should produce more.
They are just using oil that's being discarded anyway. In fact, restaurants give it away.
Yes you can power your Diesel with fryolator oil, there are kits all over the internet.
But again, if more people use this, it won't be an affordable option. Certianly, though, it does make one think about more effective forms of grease and oil recycling - for instance, we all pool our recyclable paper and plastic goods, thus getting real results with real, new recycled products (soda cans, garbage cans, low-grade paper products etc.). Perhaps if there was muncipal pooling of grease and oil (gross, but follow me) we could power some of the city's massive fleet of cars. Already many are converted to natural gas - more are going to be electric - maybe this too would be good. Again, my point is, if it's only hippies getting free fuel for a van here and there, there isn't much of a positive outcome. If a larger entity that uses more fuel to begin with uses the grease and oil leftovers, perhaps the benefits would be larger.
i live in brooklyn and run my station wagon on SVO (straight vegetable oil), and i am not a hippie, fuck you all very much.
fuel is free, and the oil i use is waste collected from restaurants fryalators.
of course bikes are better. but when you need to drive, driving on veg is the way to go.
www.greasecar.com
my friends did this, and they were stranded in Texas for a few months because the van broke down. Seems like you need to be a gearhead to maximise the usefulness of this.
I'd like to know if the fumes from vegetable oil are any better or worse for the environment, or just different.
As far as I know, no system for burning straight vegetable oil has been proven to meet EPA emissions requirements, so the operators of vehicles equipped with such systems are subject to fines (see, this article). That doesn't mean it's actually bad, just that nobody's bothered to prove that such systems meet the threshold of legality.
Greasecar
seems to be in the process of proving that their system is okay. They'll have to if they want to sell more of them.Not NYC based, but Kingdom (www.myspace.com/xkingdomx) from the Philly area recently did this for their tour.
My band Fast Heart Mart (fastheartmart.com) tours on straight vegetable oil. The fumes are far less toxic, but do contain some carbon dioxide, as does any smoke. It is a pleasant aroma of tempura. We have run 4000 miles on vegetable oil. We think that the routine killing people around the globe to steal their oil is the best a reason to run on vegetable oil. We are environmentalists, and we travel around the world bringing the message of lower impact living and alternative technologies with us everywhere we go. We think that teaching and inspiring others to make needed changes is worth the amount of carbon dioxide we are releasing if it leads to less being released in the future. There is a lot to learn about running on veggie oil, but it is doable for anyone willing to put in the time and effort and a little money.
P.S. I'm a punk rocker. Hope that dissipates the stereotyping nonsense.