Chrissy Williams
With the current $3.20-something (and rising…) price of gas, many drivers are searching for other options.
When Pierce College tennis coach Rajeev Datt need to refill his fuel tank, he goes to a sushi restaurant.
The engine of a car, he explained, is similar to that of a human heart. Contrary to what has been publicized in the past about vegetable oil cars, fast food oil is out of the picture for Datt’s 300 Turbo Diesel Mercedes-Benz, which requires 100 percent pure oil with no saturated fats.
In the year that Datt has driven without crude oil, he estimates that he has saved anywhere from $3,000 to $4,000.
Other than saving money, using vegetable oil instead of petroleum protects the environment, keeps money in the U.S. economy and supports domestic farmers, rather than foreign oil industries.
It cost Datt $700 to have his car converted to biodiesel. A second Mercedes is $600, then $500 for the third. Other diesel engines range in cost, as Mercedes is Lovecraft Biofuel’s specialty.
Lovecraft is responsible for most diesel conversions in the greater Los Angeles area, including Datt’s Mercedes, but they weren’t the first in this industry.
Elsbett Technologies started the revolution during the oil crisis in the 1970s, searching the globe for fuel alternatives. In 1979 they created the first pure vegetable oil fueled diesel engine and have been in the business of biofuel ever since.
The conversion process requires installing a larger fuel filter, a pre-heater and filtration unit to thin out the fuel (i.e. the vegetable oil, since it is thicker than regular diesel fuel) before it is injected into the engine and a second fuel pump.
A car must have a diesel engine to convert. This is because Rudolph Diesel, inventor of the diesel engine, originally intended the engine to use peanut oil as fuel. That was in 1898.
The project has come a long way since then. According to Lovecraft owner Brian Friedman in a 2005 interview with ABC,
“It’s not a hippie experiment anymore. It actually works and it works really well.”
When incredible progress is made – even if it is helps heal the world – there is always somebody who is unhappy. In this situation, these people are called “renderers.”
The National Renderers Association, Inc. refers to itself as “the original recyclers.” They take waste from the meat industry and transform it into usable products for livestock and poultry industries in the country.
Without renderers, waste from restaurants, supermarkets and slaughterhouses would go into landfills and contaminate soil and water with disease-causing bacteria.
But renderers charge their clients to take their waste:1 a gallon for oil, according to Friedman.
So, when bio-diesel people take the oil for free, although the restaurants appreciate it, the renderers lose money.
Since the renderers have a union, anyone who wants to legally take oil from restaurants must obtain a renderer’s license. Datt’s costs $170.
Lovecraft converts four to five diesels a day and turns away 10, but they do have a waiting list. They are located at 4000 Sunset Blvd. in Los Angeles, and they are soon opening a branch in Portland, Ore.