|
By Tyler B. Reed
METROWEST DAILY NEWS STAFF
HOLLISTON - Brian Moran makes fuel for his 1983 Mercedes in a blender in
his
garage.
It costs him about 20 cents to make a gallon and he says he gets the
same
performance and gas mileage that he got when he bought regular diesel.
His main ingredient is leftover vegetable oil from Jing's Garden Chinese
restaurant in town.
Moran, an environmental engineer and former Board of Health member, said
when gas prices shot up to $3 a gallon a few weeks ago, he went on the
Internet and learned how to turn veggie oil into biodiesel fuel.
Moran's new hobby may seem unusual, but more cars and trucks than ever
before are feeding off vegetable oil.
''A lot of people are doing it,'' he said. ''It's not just some flaky
idea.''
Biodiesel fuel is ''the fastest growing alternative fuel,'' with oil companies nearly doubling their output in the last year, said Jenna
Higgins,
a spokeswoman for the National Biodiesel Board. More gas stations are
offering it at the pump, including one in Chelsea and one in Falmouth.
Moran's homemade biodiesel is similar to the fuel made by big companies,
but
it is not held to national standards and is technically illegal because
it
is not taxed.
The federal government gives tax incentives to biodiesel companies because
''leaders in Washington recognized that we need to do something to
decrease
our dependence on foreign oil and decrease our dependence on oil
period,'
Higgins said.
About 600 stations around the country sell biodiesel, she said,
including
one owned by Dennis K. Burke Inc. in Chelsea.
At the pump, biodiesel costs about the same as regular diesel, but significantly reduces emissions.
Burke Oil's president, Ed Burke, said on Wednesday he was selling B5 biodiesel for $2.70 and regular diesel for $2.90.
He said he sells a lot of the fuel, and people come from all over to buy
it.
''I've always sold a lot of environmentally friendly products,'' he
said.
''It wasn't just about making a buck.''
Higgins said some cities use biodiesel to fuel municipal vehicles. The
U.S.
Navy and Marines also use it.
Higgins recommends against making the fuel at home in a garage because
of
the hazardous ingredients involved.
''It's really important that biodiesel meet that specification because if it's off at least a little bit it can damage an engine,'' Higgins said.
''We
certainly understand that people can make their own biodiesel. There are
just some issues that people need to be aware of.'' Moran said he is very careful in his measurements. First he filters the
vegetable oil ''to get the egg roll crumbs out of it.'' Then he mixes in
carefully calculated amounts of lye and methanol, which is a poison and
hazardous.
He pours it in his blender and lets it whirr for close to an hour.
Moran said his biodiesel is working well, but he eventually hopes to buy
a
conversion kit from a western Massachusetts company called Greasecar
that
would allow him to run on pure vegetable oil.
Joe Carven, an employee at the company, said business has been
overwhelming
lately because of high has prices. Greasecar founder Justin Carven could
not
be reached Friday.
Moran said more cities and towns should look into biodiesel fuel. ''We
could
run a lot of cars in this country on soybean oil,'' he said. ''It's kind
of
the wave of the future.''
(Tyler B. Reed can be reached at 508-626-4423 or treed(a)cnc.com)
|
