Motorist uses vegetable oil to power car

Tag : vegetable

The sign on the side of Steve Rushton's truckssays his drivers and his trucks eat at Paws Diner. The popular U.S. 123 diner is a supplier of used cooking oil thatRushton turns into fuel for his fleet of tow trucks. Rushton, ownerof Valley Services, and the former owner of Death Valley Exxon inClemson, has, like everyone else, seen the price of gas skyrocketin the last year. "Everyone should recycle," Rushton said.

Signs on Rushton's trucks say his vehicles are powered by wastevegetable oil and that recycling makes us all better.
Rushton said he turned to an alternative fuel as a matter ofsurvival for his business. His chemistry background, management andgasoline station experience has enabled him to create what he callsa better mouse trap.
 
"The process was developed by a German chemist who was in thecountry helping with the (Hurricane) Katrina cleanup," Rushtonsaid. "He put it on the Internet and a lot of people are tryingit." Use of vegetable oil as a fuel is not only cheaper, but reducesgreenhouse gases, which have been blamed for global warming, theNational Biodiesel Board reports.
 
Rushton said he recognized some potential problems for theuntrained person trying to turn used cooking oil into fuel.Problems included temperature changes and the filtering processbefore a finished product is usable.
"At 22 degrees, the oil can gel," Rushton said. "You also have tofilter out all the unwanted particles."
Rushton said his fuel is about 80 percent vegetable oil.
 
He knew of one man who tried to use cooking oil that contained evena small amount of animal fat and it turned to a mayonnaise-likesubstance in his diesel BMW.