Driving with Greased Lightning?

Question

I wonder what the rest of you think about this possible fuel alternative:

Grease is the word for alternative fuel

CHICAGO (UPI) -- Restaurants are filling up more than stomachs as U.S drivers turn to used grease as an alternative fuel to skyrocketing gasoline costs, market analysts say.

Increasingly, restaurants are being paid for their used cooking oil, instead of having to pay someone to take the discolored, food particle-filled goop away, the Chicago Tribune reported Friday.

Not so coincidentally, sales for kits that allow diesel-powered cars to run on the spent cooking oil also are on the rise.

Rising energy prices greased the wheels for grease's popularity.

"It all goes back to the high price of crude oil," said Bill Dieterichs, an analyst at The Jacobsen, a Chicago publication that follows grease and tallow markets. "That's what started the ball rolling."

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Answer 1

Have a look at your nearest street corner.  There's a big tank truck at the gas station.  There is no big tank truck at the McDonald's, unless the driver is having lunch.  There's simply not that much waste food oil: most restaurants get it in five-gallon cans from the Sysco truck or Sam's.  Moreover, used  cooking oil is reclaimed for use in animal feed, and the returns are greater.  

The other problems with the various sorts of biodiesel are that (1) they won't work in most cars at all (2) the quality varies drastically because the American Petroleum Institute isn't there to ensure uniform quality, so you can get stuff that doesn't work very well or clogs up your fuel pump and (3) it's still expensive and won't be going down in price.

Answer 2

whats your point...my friend drove a waste oil truck from restaurant to restaurant picking up oil.....IN 1970....i laugh at the dopes who think they will get it for free....and what??put A 50 GALLON DRUM IN THEIR TRUNK TO GET IT HOME AND CLEAN IT AND STORE IT IN THEIR GARAGE...LOL

Answer 3

You know what bothers me the most? I was told in sixth grade (and that wasn't last week) that we would have an energy crisis by the year 2000--and the predictions weren't that far off. They'll be an oil crisis first, then natural gas--we're probably looking at ten years of hardship, at a minimum. We'll most likely have to rely on COAL reserves while we try to figure something out, for goodness sake. It's a pitiable state of affairs, and STILL the American politicians think the solution is a summer gas tax holiday! Or drilling in Alaska, or who knows, maybe there's another country to invade. It funny, really, though I cannot summon a laugh.

Do you know when the first car was run on peanut oil? 1900. NINETEEN HUNDRED. That's outrageous. We only act in crisis, never in prevention. All I can say is, at least we've finally found the silver lining in the fast food industry. Perhaps soon we will get our tanks filled while we're waiting for our chicken. That's what I call service.

Answer 4

Whatever the alternative, it won't go until the major car manufacturers, the oil companies, and even the tire producers with their interests in rubber are on board.

Paranoid you say?  When "Answer This" was in 1ST GRADE there was a hour-long '60 Minutes' episode which showed how these three interests, in the form of Standard Oil, General Motors, and Firestone, systematically acquired and then tore up the electric tram systems in some 30 American cities so that freeways could be built that would carry cars and buses that would use their products.  My mother recalls when you could take the tramway from Santa Monica to downtown Los Angeles in comfort, taking about 30 minutes.  Try that today.  

Furthermore, in Los Angeles as elsewhere the original tramway engineers laid their tracks on the best geologic routes, which were then concreted over and made into the extensive parking-lots called "freeways".  Attempts to rebuild light rail in L.A. and those other cities (only 50 years later!) is impeded because of the beltways and their overpasses and so on as well as having to find or often CREATE terrain that will serve (again).

The astonishing denouement to this story was that a suit was actually brought (in the '60's) against the "Big Three" for anti-trust violation, restraint of trade, and conspiracy.  It reached court, and they were found Guilty as Charged.  The penalty?  A fine of $5000.00.  That's right: five thousand dollars.  So, because the case was "settled", it cannot be brought again.  Were the courts complicit?  Now, that WOULD be paranoid -- wouldn't it?

While we're at it, I recall a piece of 'Insider Investment Advice' I heard in the fun era of 'Reaganomics' which, by the way, gave us the lovely legacy of the Generations 'X' and 'Y'.   But that's another story.  The advice was, "Buy gasoline futures for the summer (when the price always goes up), and heating oil futures for the winter (when the price always goes up)."  Too simple to be true?  The pigs from 'Animal Farm' can't actually be running the markets, too, and keep pulling the same trick on us every year can they?  Think not?  Look at the statistics, which don't lie -- unlike the pundits and the pols.

I will say this, that despite "depletion allowances", the destruction of wilderness, and tax-tricks that provide the astonishing profits that Big Oil enjoys -- and the maintenance of intrigue and even war to secure them: none of this will actually put more oil in the ground.  It's doubtful that the Powers-That-Be will ever change as long as the golden ring is there to be grasped, whatever the cost.  But the time is upon us where petroleum exhaustion will soon occur.  With that prospect, as with any addiction, thoughts will turn to abstinence, and recovery.

Perhaps social and economic reform will be part of this.  No doubt the flood of  green and concerned advertising from the oil companies, car manufacturers and so on will grow and try to convince us to just leave things in their capable and concerned hands.  The choice is there for us to make -- maybe.  The question is, how many would  rather have the latest piece of techno snob-appeal than assume civic reponsibility? It seems to me that the new hybrid SUV's -- complete with On'Star, GPS, and friendly CD's playing for the kids,  are driven just as brutally as the gas-hog ones.

Answer 5

Scientific American magazine came out several months ago, with a rather comprehensive plan to become completely oil independent by the year 2050. They called it the "Grand Solar Plan".

Like other alternatives (e.g., biodeisel, tidal, wind, geo-thermal,nuclear, etc.), it  gave many people a reason to feel somewhat optimistic about the future; at least from the standpoint that we have possible solutions. To add to the optimism, other recent scientific articles have also suggested some breakthroughs in the efficient use of all of these alternatives.

In response to the "Grand Solar Plan" article, there were 82 "blog" responses, mostly from the scientific community attempting to address concrete problems and practical applications of  this,  any other proposals. There were a number of valid criticisms that made intuitive sense although not immediately obvious to the layman (me).  But rather than dampen my spirits, it made me feel even more optimistic about the future.  It seems obvious that we have the knowledge, talent and skill to convert these proposals to reality. Now all we need is the will.

Answer 6

Its one piece of the solution.  I don't remember where I read it but the amount of used oil the restaurants produce would only replace a small percentage of the diesel fuel that we use now.