Why Alternative Fuels?
Using vegetable oil in place of diesel fuel reduces greenhouse gases and particulate pollutants, promotes energy independence and supports domestic industry, and can stimulate the economy by saving you money and keeping more revenue in your community.
Emissions from the combustion of diesel fuel are a major source of atmospheric pollutants including fine soot and particulate matter as well as toxic gases such as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide, and other volatile organic compounds. It is common knowledge that these compounds are harmful to human and ecological health - we all know that inhaling exhaust from a vehicle (gasoline or diesel fueled) is dangerous and can quickly turn lethal, and the combustion of petroleum products is the major cause of global warming and ecological imbalance. In addition vegetable oil is a renewable resource meaning that it comes from plants that were grown last season, not 350 million years ago like oil. By replacing diesel with vegetable oil we can eliminate these negative impacts because vegetable oil is a safe, clean and renewable fuel - it is the only fuel we eat every day!
Using vegetable oil in place of diesel also promotes energy independence which is critical in our current economic crisis. Until the 1950s, the United States produced nearly all the petroleum it consumed. But by the end of the decade the gap between production and consumption began to widen and imported petroleum became a major component of the U.S. petroleum supply. By 1994, the U.S. imported more petroleum than it produced. Our dependence on foreign oil and the political strife it causes has led many politicians to advocate for finding new energy sources here at home. Vegetable oil is currently a widely available waste product which can easily be refined into a fuel source. In addition oil can be made from many different feedstocks and new methods of oil production have great promise, such as the extraction of oil from algae. Algae fields not only grow quickly but also produce substantially more oil per acre than corn or soybeans - an acre of algae has produced 1,850 gallons of oil, and can theoretically produce up to 15,000 gallons when grown on industrial scales. Compare this to soybeans which produce about 50 gallons and corn which produces only around 30 gallons! With this kind of production vegetable oil is a realistic replacement for much of the diesel that we burn today, enabling us to secure long term, renewable sources of fuel at home.
Burning vegetable oil instead of diesel will undoubtably save you money - our customers save between 30% to 80% on their fuel costs after a conversion. This is because vegetable oil is an abundant resource that can be obtained for free and requires minimal processing. Most conversions will pay for themselves within the first year and many payback the initial investment within 6 months! After the initial investment is paid back, our customers end up saving money for years to come by being able to avoid having to pay for petroleum fuel in the future. Furthermore the production and transportation of diesel fuel is a job that often happens far from home, requiring that local communities indirectly spend a significant amount of money to drill, process, and transport fuel to their local gas stations and outsource the jobs required to do that work. Using petroleum fuels therefore exports money and job opportunities from our communities. Using vegetable oil in place of diesel fuel keeps more money in our communities and utilizes a resource that is abundant- waste fryer oil from restaurants, schools, hospitals and all other industrial kitchens. In addition, growing and processing our own fuel can save millions in drilling and transporting costs and also create new jobs in vegetable oil production. Replacing diesel consumption with vegetable oil stimulates local economies by saving on current costs and creating new forms of revenue.
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