We tour in a 1995 International school bus that runs on 100% waste vegetable oil (WVO).
In 2006, we are spending 10 months touring the United States in an environmentally friendly vehicle and spreading word of its benefits.

HISTORY:
Rudolph Diesel (1858-1913) developed and ran the "first diesel engine suitable for practical use" in February of 1897. This engine was fueled by peanut oil. As a result of Diesel's vision, compression ignited engines were powered by biofuel until the 1920's.

It was during this period that diesel engines were altered to utilize the lower viscosity of fossil fuel (IE petroleum based fuels) rather than a biofuel (IE vegetable oil). The petroleum industry was growing rapidly, and many of the early "oil tycoons" were able to influence the development of all engines and machinery.

This alteration was first step in the elimination of the production of biofuels and in forcing the concept of biofuel into obscurity, erasing the possibility from the public awareness.

Until recently.

OIL CRISIS:
Did you know that the US government currently has upwards of 700 millions barrels of oil on reserve? It's true. Look here:
www.fossil.energy.gov/programs/reserves/

President Bush, an "advocate of alternative fuels", can only access this reserve during a "severe energy supply interruption".

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina (Sept 2005), the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) provided 23.6 million barrels of crude oil for the U.S. market.

During Desert Storm (1990, 1991), the SPR provided 21 million barrels of crude oil for the U.S. market.

Otherwise, there has been no fuel relief for the U.S. Market during the Bush administration. Although we have been at war overseas and have faced skyrocketing crude oil costs, prices at the pump continue to rise.

According to the National Biodiesel Board, If the United States replaced 20%-30% of it's petroluem useage with government approved B20 (20% biodiesel/80% petroleum diesel), we would no longer need to buy crude oil from the Middle East.

THE COST OF BIODIESEL:
Companies like Earth Biofuels Inc. have made biodiesel commercially available. "Bio-Willie", a B20 fuel that Willie Nelson (and Morgan Freeman) help market is now available at pumps in California, Texas, Mississippi, Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee. This fuel is compatible with ALL diesel engines.
Imperial Petroleum Recovery Corp. has recently developed a process at their facility in Houston, TX called Microwave Separation Technology (MST), which drastically reduces the cost of biodiesel production.

Members of Constants personally support and contribute to these companies.

THE FUTURE:
Ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) is a new EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) standard for the sulfur content in on-road diesel fuel sold in the United States, beginning June 1st, 2006. On October 15th, 2006, ULSD becomes the standard commercially available diesel fuel across the country.

Environmentally speaking, this is great news and is the first step towards clean, renewable energy for vehicles. Lowering the sulfur content in fuel means cleaner burning fuel. Sulfur also increases viscoscity, so a lower sulfur content means additives like biodiesel become increasingly helpful in maintaining fuel flow and performance.

Also, this new standard may increase the availability of diesel-fueled passenger cars in the United States, because engines will no longer have to be redesigned to cope with higher sulfur content. Hey, it's working in Europe.

The down side is this; If you continue to run solely on ULSD in the Fall, you may lose up to 2% performance per gallon, and while building the engines themselves becomes cheaper, the cost of fuel production goes up. So be prepared to see the price of diesel rise even higher into 2007.

FIXING THE PROBLEM:
Unfortunately, running your vehicle on waste vegetable oil (WVO) is only a temporary solution to a much bigger problem. We've been out on the road for over five months and we're learning that farmers, truckers and everyday people are doing this all across the country. You can do it too, but please realize that within the next few years, we'll all be in line at the pump. Only next time, we'll be putting some form of renewable fuel - probably vegetable oil - in our vehicles. It's up to all of us to influence the way our generation understands and consumes energy.

As you read above, any diesel engine can run on biodiesel. You can set up a WVO filtering facility in your city, you can make B20 at home, or you can write to your Senators and Congressmen saying that you want to see this fuel available at the pump near your house. It's happening all around us:

- Minnesota requires atleast a 2% blend of biodiesel at the pumps.

- In San Francisco, over 800 government vehicles run on B20 including airport vehicles, Department of Public Works vehicles, MUNI buses, zoo vehicles, and even ferry boats.

- The IRS now offers a tax incentive for biodiesel production. The form is available for download here:
www.irs.gov/formspubs/lists/0,,id=97817,00.html

- Lee Raymond, recently retired chairman and chief executive of Exxon Mobil, had been paid a salary of $686 million per year during the 13 years he ran the company. Next time you're standing at the pump, think about what you're really paying for.

STILL WANT TO RUN ON WVO?
We still do, so can you.

www.greasenotgas.com
This is Aaron (of Piebald) and Mike. The installation instructions we followed are up here, and Aaron was really helpful when we had problems in LA. They run a garage that does conversions and their site has the step-by-step available online.

www.lovecraftbiofuels.com
Brian runs Lovecraft and he is WVO guru. He converts Mercedes in the LA area to start and stop on WVO, which no else does that I know of. We got our fuel filter housing and pre-filter from him, and he was able to answer all of our questions.

www.greasecar.com
Another site that has lots of useful information, and sells entire conversion kits as well as all kind of useful accessories.

If you have any questions about anything written here, or about how to convert your vehicle, please contact us directly:
constants(at)radarrecordings.com

Thank you for reading.