Homemade alternative fuel

Activities director gases up with biodiesel

   Lately, when the gas light flicks on in a car all anyone can think of is…gas prices…gas prices…gas prices.
   Two people at Northwest College don’t have to worry about this situation. Instructor of Business Mark Andreasen and Director of Student Activities and Orientation Mike Taylor have other methods of getting around — cooking oil. That’s right, they use cooking oil to power their vehicles.
   Andreasen got the idea to run his vehicle on cooking oil about a year and a half ago. He commented, “I saw it on a PBS special and I thought it sounded fun.” He has been burning oil ever since. Asked how much he had to pay for his oil, he said, “I get it from China Town. They would have to pay to have it processed anyway, so they just give it to me for free. I go every week and pick up their old grease and take it home. First, I run the oil through a T-shirt filter, then I send it through an actual filter I ordered. After this I just pump it into my van.”
   One drawback about this process is that he must also have diesel to make it work. Andreasen owns a full-size van with two tanks already installed in it. The only thing that he had to purchase was a converter kit from greasle.com.
   He commented, “All I have to do is start my car in diesel to warm up the cooking oil ,then I just switch over tanks. I also have to shut down with it, just so that no oil is left overnight in the valves.” If he tries to start his vehicle with the cooking oil, it won’t work because it has solidified. As long as the oil is warm, it will run.
   Andreasen said, “Well, some people do it because it is environmentally friendly, and also a renewable resource, but I have to say I am doing it purely from an economical standpoint. I can really tell that is has helped. When all of the gas prices skyrocketed, I wasn’t worrying at all. Every time the gas prices go up, I am more and more glad I did this. It costs the same amount to drive around Powell as it does to drive to Billings.”
   So how does someone using cooking oil to power their vehicle on road trips? “Well, I can actually put a 55-gallon tank in the back of my van to carry oil with me. I also go to restaurants along the way and they give me their old oil. It’s not a hassle at all,” said Andreasen.
   Taylor, on the other hand, doesn’t have to use any diesel to run his vehicle. He takes the practice one step further and processes his cooking oil. He, along with his friend Sam Hoffman, mix the cooking oil with lye and methanol, and strip all of the fat and glycerol out of the oil. Because there is no glycerol to make the bio-fuel solidify, he can start his car right up. Taylor receives his cooking oil from four different restaurants in Red Lodge as well as from the NWC kitchen. He and Hoffman then spend about two hours processing it in Hoffman’s personal garage. The pair recently turned the garage into an insulated processing center for their bio-fuel. They have estimated the price of their fuel at about 54 cents per gallon, quite a difference compared to regular gas prices.
   All of their fuel burning only began last fall. Taylor started researching and then followed a ‘how-to’ book, From the Fryer to the Fuel Tank. “It’s a very hands-on guide,” explains Taylor, “It was very easy to follow.”
   “It’s been fun. We may make mistakes, but we are getting better,” Taylor said of their experience. He is now looking into winterizing his vehicle. He will have to do some experimenting, but he hopes to work it out with little difficulty. Taylor will add another gas tank to his car that can be easily heated to keep the grease above its 23 degree freezing temperature.
   When asked for his reasons behind taking on this bio-fuel hobby, he replied, “Well it does save money, but I think it is more of a personal statement. If the government is not going to do something to help us out with gas prices, then I will.”
While most people spend up to $50 to fill up one tank, two men on the Northwest College campus spend pennies on bio-fuel. They stand as advocates for cutting back on wasteful fuel burning habits and powering our cars with cooking oil.