A little grease goes a long way
Ian Graham fed his van 100% vegetable oil this summer when he embarked on the more than 2,000 km road trip from Kitchener, Ontario to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. He blogged his adventures, for which he only used solar power to charge his camping gear, iPod and to re-power the battery that runs the pump he uses to collect and filter the waste vegetable oil, at vegvan.ca .
His latest thrills have been looking into supplementing the vegetable oil with a small hydrogen cell for the van, and bringing with him a solar oven. Thanks for the inspiration Ian!
Tags: fuel, hydrogen cell, road trip, solar oven, solar power, vegetable oil
September 18th, 2008 at 2:46 am
Ian,
You truly are an inspiration to others. Your efforts have set a pathway that others can and should follow. We are all in this mess together; and, it is initiatives like yours that show us yet another way to make a huge difference. Way to go Ian!!!!!!
Wayne Townsend
CEO, Peer Mentor.net
September 25th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
the reason why we use fossil fuels, in this case gasoline, is because it caries the most amount of energy in the smallest possible space. What Ian fails to realize, is that hte amount of fossil fuels required to make his “fuel” far outweighs what he would have used just puttinng gas in the tank in the first place.
October 6th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Nick… you are seriously misinformed. How much energy does it take to get a barrel of oil? To process it? To deliver it from the middle east? In Canada’s case with the tar sands, how much water, natural gas, etc.? And the pollution to get this oil which affects ALL Canadians!! Now, as to what I do… the farmer grows canola which gets crushed for oil and is used by restaurants which are everywhere. I pick up the USED oil, filter it with a pump that has a solar powered battery, and into the tank. Now, the farmer can also use this oil in his tractors instead of fossil fuel. So, what fossil fuels did I use? NONE! ZIP! The truck delivering the veg oil could of even used WVO or biodiesel as well for the delivery. Also, gasoline does not carry more energy then veg oil. Gas involves a spark plug where as veg oil/biodiesel requires pressure for combustion. Veg oil can’t be used in a gasoline engine but a diesel which is far more powerful and efficient hence the trucking industry. Do some more research on WVO and Algae biodiesel and then you will have a better understanding.