Fisher: Big green bus rolls into town, running on grease

Tag : green food
Five rooftop solar panels power all theelectronic comforts of home - stereo, flat-panel TV, laptopcomputers, cell phones and a refrigerator.
The interior carries a definite aroma: kind of a cross between akitchen and a transmission shop.
The young people on this bus are hardly pranksters. They are politeand ever so idealistic.
Trey Roy, an engineering major from Virginia, took me on a tour ofthe veggie-fueled diesel system. The oil, which is collected fromgiant vats behind restaurants, is filtered to remove bits of wonton, french fries and taco shells, and then heated to 180 degreesso it's thin enough not to gum up the engine. A diesel engine willrun on just about anything - the first ones ran on peanut oil - butthe veggie goo has to be flushed out with regular diesel everynight so it won't turn to sludge.
Inefficient, but free
The engine is not exactly fuel efficient, getting just 7 miles pergallon. But when the fuel is free, who cares about the mileage?Besides, grease is a waste product.
"Once you fry in it, it's done," Roy said. "You can't use itanymore."
Big Green left New Hampshire June 9 and has traveled about half ofits planned 13,000 miles, stopping in Washington, D.C., NewOrleans, Houston and lots of other places along the way. You canfollow its progress at www.thebiggreenbus.org .
For the most part, finding fuel hasn't been a problem. Just pullthe bus up to a restaurant and ask permission to drain the greasedumpster. From burger joints to Chinese restaurants, any place withthe greasy goo will do.
"Every restaurant basically deep-fries something," said Mazonson,who lives in Menlo Park.
But the pickings have been slimmer since the crew got toCalifornia. All the chain restaurants in this state and manyindependents contract with recyclers to haul off their waste oil.
"They used to have to pay to have it taken away," he said, "but nowpeople pay them for it."
On the prowl
That's why he and Arch, who grew up in Palo Alto, spent Wednesdaydriving around in a veggie-oil-powered Jetta visiting restaurants.
"The problem isn't finding oil," Arch said. "It's everywhere. Inever would have thought before this summer that there was so muchgrease in dumpsters behind restaurants."
The problem is finding grease that hasn't been spoken for. Theirscouting trip only produced 70 gallons of fuel, enough to get BigGreen to Oregon, about 500 miles.
But that's OK, the guys said. It just means more people are gettingthe message about alternative fuels.
It does, however, point to the problem with veggie power. It's alimited resource. Even with all the tacos, doughnuts and McNuggetswe eat in this country, we still only produce enough grease topower about 2 percent of the cars on the road today. Imagine thelines at the grease pump.
So get on it, America. If we're ever going to achieve energyindependence, we're all going to have to do our part.
Pass the fried chicken. And don't forget the side of fries.