This is one of the most articulate statement on the state of affairs in Iraq that I have heard so far. Right on Russ!

UPDATE 1/17/08: This video was removed from youtube due to “terms of use violation”. Who doesn’t want people to hear an articulate assessment of Bush’s war in Iraq?

This week 66 U.S. Senators prove that they are a joke. This from the Washington Post.

The Citizens Flag Alliance, a group pushing for the Senate this week to pass a flag-burning amendment to the Constitution, just reported an alarming, 33 percent increase in the number of flag-desecration incidents this year.

The number has increased to four, from three.

The naive among us may have trouble appreciating how four flag-burning episodes would constitute a constitutional crisis. But the men and women of the Senate, ever alert to emerging threats, are on the case.

[...]

Fortunately, the Senate will have plenty of time to discuss that matter. The chamber has scheduled up to four days of debate on the flag-burning amendment this week. If that formula — one day of Senate debate for each incident of flag burning this year — were to be applied to other matters, the Senate would need to schedule 12 days of debate to contemplate the number of years before Medicare goes broke, 335 days of debate for each service member killed in Iraq this year and 11 million days of debate on the estimated number of illegal immigrants in the country.

Unfortunately, the Senate has only 49 days left on its legislative calendar for the year.

Whenever people ask me about vegcars the conversation invariably turns to sourcing wvo (waste vegetable oil). “Won’t demand exceed supply soon?” they would ask. I always poo-pooed this assumption as somewhere off in an indistinct future. Well I reluctantly must admit, that time is fast approaching.

There is a great deal of oil being generated by restaurants that can be used in a vegcar. In fact, there is a tremendous amount of this oil that is well suited to vegcar use and is ending up in cattle feed instead. The main problem is that the renderers (the companies that collect used cooking oil and animal fat) have no practical way of separating the “good oil” from the “bad oil”. They drive around in a truck much like one that pumps out septic tanks, and suck the oil into the trucks huge tank. When they finish their route, they return to the processing plant and deposit their spoils there (pun intended, sorry).

The quality of oil varies greatly between restaurants. Some cook with lard, some with hydrogenated oils and others with 100% canola or soybean oil (preferred). Some restaurants dump more food matter in with the oil. Some places dump water into the drum with the oil. The net result in my experience, is that around 1 in 10 asian restaurants have oil that is well suited for vegcar use. Let me add that by “well suited” I mean that the oil does not require a great deal of processing. Just pre-filter it, let it settle for a day or more, and pour it into the car’s fuel tank.

The renderers do process the oil. They heat it, removing water content, and filter it. The result however is not well suited for use in a vehicle. This oil may be used to produce biodiesel or wind up as cattle food. While I am not against biodiesel (it has some goood applications) svo has many advantages. The main advantage is that no refining is necessary – eliminating the need for the use of toxic chemicals. Many people believe that the petroleum industry prefers biodiesel to svo since refining will be necessary. This is the kind of stoneage corporate thinking that has stifled progressive development in our society for more than a century.

I believe that what needs to happen is that vegcar drivers and converters need to sit down with the renderers and figure out a way to allow the “good oil” to flow to vegcar drivers and the rest to go to other users. This will have to make financial sense to all involved. I welcome such a discussion and have initiated conversations with one of the largest renderers in California. I am certain that some workable solution can be reached. In the mean time, there is always new veggie oil from Costco at $2.40/gallon.

Wow! I just returned from the Grass Valley Bluegrass Festival and was very gratified to see more than 5,000 page views this past week! Thank you for visiting vegcar.net. I will continue to try and provide useful information about running your car on straight vegetable oil.

The trip went off without a hitch. In addition to hearing and playing a lot of music, the car ran beautifully. I started the trip with a full tank of wvo and 20 gallons in the trunk. The trip was about 520 miles and I arrived home with plenty of oil to spare. It wasn’t so great driving through the hot central valley without A/C. Must get that repaired. I have a leak somewhere in the system and the freon is gone.

My favorite band at the festival was Uncle Earl. They play a wonderful mix of old time and bluegrass music. See and hear them here.

I met a lot of people interested in vegcars and told them all about the conversion process and collecting oil. I was also able to spend a little time chatting with some experts in the field. Things are changing (progressing) very rapidly in the vegcar technology.

I will address many of these issues in the coming weeks. They include:

1. Sourcing Oil
2. New types of filters and parts
3. Converting your car

Technorati Tags: wvo, svo, biofuel, conversion, mercedes benz, 300d, diesel, biodiesel, filter, vegetable oil, vegcar, greasecar, uncle earl

I’m leaving Sunday for a 500 mile trip. I’m going to the Grass Valley Bluegrass Festival (Grass Valley CA). I have 20 gallons of wvo all filtered and ready for the trip (in addition to the 15 gallons in the tank). That should allow me a range of over 800 miles. I’m getting new tires for my car tomorrow too. The loose upper arm bushings (now repaired) thrashed the tires – especially in the front.

I am looking forward to seeing this film when it comes out at the end of this month. While I don’t think electric cars are the ultimate answer to our energy problems, it would certainly be a significant step in the right direction.

North Dakota is apparently discussing the legalization of growing industrial hemp. This crop is incredibly useful – that is why George Washington grew it – and it won’t get you high. The first two drafts of the US Constitution were reputedly written on hemp paper.

There is still a federal ban on growing hemp but this move by ND may start a rational dialog. Canada is one of several nations that produces a significant amount of industrial hemp. According to Wikipedia, hemp has tremendous nutritional value as well as high oil/energy content. Hmmm.

If you have more information about hemp and hemp oil, please let me know.

Here is the TreehuggerTV spot on Lovecraft Biofuels again. I am re-posting it with the embedded youtube.com video. I love youtube.

We did it! Today we converted my friend Josh’s beautiful 1983 Mercedes Benz 300SD to run on vegetable oil (not biodiesel*). It took three of us around five-and-a-half hours but we were talking a lot and having a good old time. We also paused frequently to take photographs. I will post the step by step process sometime this week.

You can see the step-by-step process here.

Meanwhile, here is a video of the conversion and the first vegoil startup.

We did a single-tank conversion using the Davco 234 filter/heater/fuel-separator. We spent a good amount of time positioning the hoses so that they were out of the way, and unlikely to rub against anything that might damage them. The result is a beautiful conversion. To start with, we ran the car on 50% diesel and 50% SVO – straight (unused) vegetable oil (purchased at Costco).

Gradually Josh will up the percentage of oil until it reaches 100%. We have been told that since veg oil actually cleans the inside of the fuel tank (releasing impurities into the fuel line) it is best to start with a mixture. Then, Josh can start introducing WVO (waste vegetable oil) instead of SVO.

* Any diesel vehicle can run on biodiesel with no conversion necessary.

test