Can't afford gas? Switch to Crisco!

[ragingfish]

http://news.bostonherald.com/l...29129Quote »You say potato, I say fill 'er upBy Robin Washington/ Roads ScholarMonday, May 24, 2004Want to pay $2.33 for a gallon of unleaded? Go to Shell or Mobil. But if you have a diesel engine and want to drive for free, fill it up at Applebee's. At the back door. That suggestion comes from Justin Carven of Florence's Greasecar Vegetable Fuel Systems, who says for about $1,400, he'll outfit an old VW Rabbit or any diesel car to run on fast-food fryer leftovers. ``It burns cleaner than diesel fuel does,'' said the Hampshire College grad, whose business began as a class project four years ago to get a tractor to run on vegetable oil. While that worked, it didn't make a lot of economic sense, with a gallon of Crisco running $3 on sale, he said. Extra with fries. At the same time, other earthy-crunchy engineers were working on new ``bio-diesel'' fuel, mixing vegetable oil and methyl alcohol, but it didn't cost out either. Carven's bigger problem, though, was the oil would coagulate, as anyone who leaves the dishes overnight discovers. His answer was to install a second gas tank with conventional fuel to start the car and heat up the oil. ``Once you do that, you can get free waste oil,'' he said, explaining any brand works, even if it’s been deep-frying chicken. Artist Line Bruntse says she didn't believe it. ``I said, `Yeah, right. Well, where am I going to get the oil?' '' she said. But she says she tried it and it does work, and now she helps Carven install the converters. So does Daryl Beck, who we found on his cellphone in Chicago yesterday. ``I am driving in a Greasecar right now. It absolutely works,'' he said, adding restaurants are happy to give away old grease. Chinese is best, Carven said, though Applebee's is pretty good. While we'll take his word for that, the emissions might need more study. ``You just don't know what's in that oil,'' Christine Sansevero, an engineer for the Environmental Protection Agency told The Associated Press. But for the amount oil companies are soaking us, someone should find out what's in it and bring it to market. It also might be a good time for the T's old diesel buses to turn vegetarian. MBTA General Manager Michael Mulhern said they rejected bio-diesel a few years back. But, he said, ``If there's something new, we'll take a look at it.'' Now that just might pan out.

[drunkenmaxx]

i read about this about a year ago. i think that brits are doing that all over the place. i am not sure, but i think that people are getting in trouble for that. especially around here where G. Bush takes it up the ... from the oil companies

[redlava]

@#&$% the oil companies. It's about time for us to screw them over a little bit.

[Stang2Vibe]

Interesting idea. I'd like to find out how that works.And why do people keep insisting on bringing the President into this? First of all, as I've already explained several times, the President, regardless of who it is, has relatively little influence on the price of oil. Unless we annex the entire Middle East, most of Canada, and parts of Russia, it's going to remain that way. Second of all, how many Presidents have we had since gasoline has been the primary fuel for transportation? Every one of them has had the same opportunity as the current President to change things and if one is going to be accused of taking bribes from the oil companies to look the other way, then ALL of them must be accused of the same thing.Also, an interesting point I heard on the news last night. The US gets approximately 20% of it's total oil supply from ALL Middle Eastern oil sources combined. Yes, combined. We get about 40% of our oil from Canada. So blame Canada, blame Canada! I suppose. We've had the screws turned to us since Venezuela drastically reduced the amount of oil that it is putting on the world market. I've been told that Venezuela has the cheapest gasoline prices in the world now because they are using their own oil for themselves almost exclusively and they're selling rather little on the open market. Blame Venezuela! Blame Venezuela! But I guess it's just easier (and more entertaining to some) just to Bush-bash without knowing what is really going on. >

[ragingfish]

More info:http://www.greasecar.com

[bus driver]

Seen that on CBC, Surprizinly hard to get, You thought cheap gas was hard to find? Try cooking oil, not as easy as you think

[ragingfish]

I bet I'd have an endless supply working at Fridays!

[drunkenmaxx]

>i totally believe that bush is in big business' pocket. i have no witty statements or incredible facts to back that up, it's just my dos centavos.

[Stang2Vibe]

Well ponder this one for a minute. If there were no big businesses, where would everyone work? If I were president, I'd want to be in good with "big business" and cooperate with them. They get things done and keep this nation on top of the world economically. We keep demonizing large corporations and their wealthy leaders, but think of where we would be without them!

[drunkenmaxx]

here here! i would do the same if i was him, don't get me wrong, i am honest. of course BB is important, i love Wal-Mart!

[Fialchar]

You know, over in Cairo, Egypt they pay (If I remember right) 50 cents a gallon, and in Venezuela you can get a TANKFUL for 70 cents. While the gas prices might be in the US, I refuse to put used cooking oil in my car. There's all those little pieces of the breaded chicken, or w/e that might cause problems, and it just doesn't seem very logical to me. I may be mistaken, but I'd rather pay $2 a gallon than put an experimental used oil in my car. Just my $0.02