WASHINGTON (AFP) - A growing number of Americans are setting up mini-
refineries in their homes to produce biodiesel, a fuel made from waste
cooking oil which is cleaner and cheaper than the petrol sold in gas
stations.
The sky-high price of crude oil is scaring everyone.
Biodiesel has Hollywood backers like actress Julia Roberts and Morgan
Freeman, is sung about by country star Willie Nelson but also meets the
political correctness of the American right wing which has made the
campaign against imported oil a mantra.
"It's better for the engine, way better for the environment, it's cheaper,
but it depends how you price your labor," said Dan Goodman, an
entrepreneur in residence at the University of Maryland Business School
who runs his Mercedes on biodiesel.
There are two ways to get on the biodiesel bandwagon, Goodman said.
Either you change the engine and just put in waste oil, which would not be
strictly legal in the United States, or you can modify the fuel into
biodiesel, which is legal and works in any diesel car.
Biodiesel plants are a boom industry in America, but thousands now make
fuel in their garages from the oil left after frying french fries or
scrounging around restaurants and food factories.
"It's easy when you know how to do it," Goodman said, though he warned
that the process "can be hazardous," since it involves flammable products
and caustic vapors that require a well-ventilated production site.
"You filter the waste fried oil to remove the glycerol, the most sticky
part, and then replace it with an alcohol molecule (methanol) and lye
(caustic soda)," he said.
Goodman makes about 300 gallons (1,135 liters) of biodiesel a day on a
farm in Maryland, where his helper Matt Geiger twice a week brings huge
jerricans of the precious "yellow grease" he collects from restaurants in
the towns of Olney and College Park.
The homemade fuel keeps 15 school buses running in the area, Goodman said.
Most biodiesel fans have organized into cooperatives that make biofuel
from soy oil instead of used cooking oil. The groups have been growing
over the past few years, but they still represent a minuscule part of the
US energy sector.
According to the National Biodiesel Board, biodiesel production has
tripled since 2004 to 75 million gallons (280 million liters) last year.
This year, it is expected to double to 150 million gallons (56 million
liters).
In comparison, US consumption of traditional diesel fuel extracted from
crude oil stands at 60 billion gallons (227 billion liters) per year.
But biodiesel still has country music legend Willie Nelson singing its
praises.
The 73-year-old songwriter has launched his own brand of the fuel,
dubbed "BioWillie," and strongly believes that biodiesel is the way to go.
Nelson and Oscar winning actor Morgan Freeman are on the board of a
company called Earth Biofuels which has signed up Roberts to help promote
the cooking oil fuel.
"The idea is to do something useful towards eliminating America's
dependence on foreign oil. Consumers can now ensure that their fuel money
stays in America rather than going overseas," Nelson wrote on his website.
