If America converted all vehicles to run on used cooking oil, how much could we get from all the restaurants?

Question

and where would we get any excess fuel. Isn't fresh cooking oil MORE EXPENSIVE than gasoline per gallon?

Answer 1

We wouldn't use cooking oil, we use algae oil, we could produce all the oil we need to run the country!

There is going to be some start up cost and a few problems to resolve, but nothing we can't fix. The government started looking at this in the 1970's but the price of oil went down the algae oil couldn't compete, but now at a $100+ a barrel, we are seeing more and more companies looking at algae oil. Hopefully the government. or the corn lobby, won't mess this up too.

Answer 2

I don't think there is enough land to grow all the corn or canola needed.

Answer 3

Yes we need to do this as I don't trust the Arabs ,and this could help.

Answer 4

It always cracks me up when the news has its bimonthly bit on the local guy who converted his car to run on used fry oil. I think to myself, "You fool! If everyone follows your lead, no more free oil for you!" Sure, every bit helps, but used cooking oil could only sustain a fraction of the population. And yes, if fresh cooking oil could be had for cheaper than diesel people would already be using it.

Answer 5

cleaner,safer,and healthier stuff always have been more expensive, don't ask me why.....You would think that the Healthy foods,cleaner and safer methods of doing things would be cheaper then the more harmful ones, thanks to greed i guess.

Answer 6

Yes, fresh ("virgin") food-grade oil is more expensive than petroleum.

Figures I've seen for waste cooking grease in the USA come to about 2 billion gallons/year.  That's about 6.5 gallons per person per year.  This is enough to provide a biodiesel additive to low-sulfur diesel fuel (biodiesel is a very good lubricant and helps protect injection pumps), but nowhere near enough to replace petroleum.

Answer 7

Cooking grade, yes. But feedstock grade should be quite sufficient, and should still beat the price of fossil diesel. Then there are the economies of scale. Don't worry, it'll work.