Please Pass the WVO. I Gotta Get Home Tonight in my VolksVegan
Jim (Norman) and Ginger (Gordon) are not your average (meek) Americans who complain about fuel prices but don't do anything about it. About a year ago, they decided to stop depending solely on petroleum for transportation. They sold their used minivan and bought a used Volkwagen Jetta TDI with more mileage on it than the van. Then they took it to MA to be modified to run on WVO – Waste Vegetable Oil. When the vehicle emerged from the shop it was no longer a Volkswagen. It was a VolksVegan!
I spoke with Jim and he told me about the progress they have made with the "Vegan." No engine problems. New friends, both on the web and in the neighborhood. Local sources of WVO which, I am proud to say, I contributed to by my own eating habits.
With what they have spent and learned about vegan driving, they are ready to convert another Volkwagen. Both vehicles can still run on petro or biodiesel if WVO is not available but WVO is clearly the fuel of choice.
To Jim and Ginger, this is not a matter of saving money. At this point it has cost them more than it has saved. No, this is about saving the environment and who it is that gets the money they spend on fuel. The vegan equipment they bought is mostly made and installed in the USA and the WVO they have consumed would have ended up in a landfill had they not used for fuel instead.
There is not enough WVO in the country to fuel many diesel engines but there is enough to prove that resourceful Americans don't have to wait till the hydrogen economy comes to wean themselves almost completely off petroleum.
Look for future reports on the VolksVegan on ABG.
[Source: GreaseCar]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
beaker 7:22AM (5/25/2007)
It can run on petro AND biodiesel? Wow! That alone is an engineering feat.
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stewie81 8:27AM (5/25/2007)
SVO is cheap and makes use of an available waste stream, but it isn't clean. It sounds cool to dump free oil into your tank, but if they took the time to process it into homemade biodiesel, some of the harmful effects of the exhaust would be reduced (the engine would also handle it more easily, but it's their engine, that's their choice). See this study: http://www.bv-pflanzenoele.de/pdf/ArchTox.pdf. While WVO emissions don't appear to be illegal, they are in a very important way more harmful than petroleum diesel emissions.
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D-GOD 9:17PM (5/28/2007)
Who is waiting for Hydrogen?
No one except the oil companies, b/c they will be the ones to distribute it, price it and do what they are doing with oil.
Hydrogen is so costly, and out of our reach, where as lithium batteries, are here, and can be made affordable if we invest as much in them as hydrogen, not to mention requires 3 or more times the energy to "fill a car" then to plug in an EV.
As long as you are dependent on the "pump" for your fuel, and big nasty corporation has control over you and ultimately your government.
Electric cars ARE the present and future if your gonna drive.
they out perform gas and are virtually maintenance free
www.Teslamotors.com
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