Vegetable Oil Road Trip

Last night, I finally arrived in Indianapolis and unloaded Minnie!

This past weekend, I was in Golden, CO attending the Local Biodiesel Conference on the Colorado School of Mines campus (a very pretty campus, btw…).

When I attend conferences, I am usually content if I learn one new thing, or make one good contact, and I generally expect to be bored most of the time. At this conference, I had a blast, learned so much, I was afraid my head would burst open a few times, and I feel that everyone I met is a new friend. I can’t say enough good things about this conference – If you are interested in biodiesel (using it, distributing it, making it, looking at it, or drinking it), or are interested in the biodiesel community in general, I highly recommend attending next year’s local biodiesel conference.

I’m currently in Boulder, CO, staying with my uncle. That’s right: Minnie made it over the continental divide at 7,000 feet:

I’ll be attending the Local Biodiesel Conference this weekend, and then going on to Lawrence, Kansas and Indianapolis, Indiana (where Mary is beginning her intern year).

I’ve decided to stay in Indianapolis and try to join the biofuels (or enviro-tech) industry there. I still have several posts to write (…and interview footage to edit), so this blog will remain somewhat active as I explore the enviro-tech scene in Indianapolis.

A big part of driving this far on vegetable oil is finding good sources of fuel. My emergency filtration kit is okay in a pinch, but there’s no way I can filter 40 gallons through it without going nuts. This led me to visit the Grease Kings.

Searching the SF bay area for a source of Veg Oil on fillup4free.com, I found GreaseKings – a company that makes and installs Vegetable Oil kits, and handles all things vegetable oil in Sacramento, CA.

I called Rich (Grease Kings’ owner) and asked if I could get about 35 gallons of oil, and headed up to Sacramento to fill up Minnie. On my way out the door, my phone rings again “hey, are you that guy driving around the country – on the National VegOil Board website?” That’s right I experienced my first (and only) moment of web-celebrity!

When I arrived, we chatted briefly about his work with Grease Kings before he dashed off to a meeting.

It looks like the Grease Kings shop manufacturers all their conversion kit equipment in-house (their heated filter housings look very cool), which allows them to maintain high quality control. Their kit is a single-tank system with coolant heating.

As I’ve mentioned before, I really like single tank systems for their simplicity, and I wish Minnie had one, but (having driven Minnie through a Wisconsin winter) I’m worried about extreme cold weather (below zero F) performance. But for West Coast (and even 10 months of Wisconsin), driving, a single tank system is so much better than the headaches of a dual tank kit!

So, if you happen to be in the Sacramento area, go check out GreaseKings and say hello to Rich for me!

Rich, Minnie, and me.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, on Wednesday morning I visited Sequential Biofuels‘ gorgeous flagship fueling station located at 86714 McVay Hwy in Eugene, OR. I realize I just called a gas station gorgeous, but if you go there, I think you’ll agree – compared to the traditional fueling station next door, this one looks awesome!

The station is unique for several reasons:
1. Only biofuel and biofuel blends are sold:

• 10% ethanol (90% gasoline)
• 85% ethanol (15% gasoline)
• 5% biodiesel (95% diesel)
• 20% biodiesel (80% diesel)
• 99.9% biodiesel (0.1% diesel)

2. 30-50% of all electricity consumed by the station comes from the solar panels installed as sun shades above the fuel pumps.
3. 4800 plants make up the “living roof” over the convenience store to control rainwater runoff and keep the building cool in the summer.
4. The snacks in the convenience store attempt to be as local and organic as possible.
5. Sequential also operates a 1 Million Gallon/year biodiesel plant in Salem.

When I arrived, I was greeted warmly by Helen and Allen (who filled Minnie up with B99.9 manufactured in Salem, OR). We chatted about the company, the fueling station, and the Governor’s visit before I headed down the road to the SF bay.

Photo courtesy sqbiofuels.com.

I’m in Corvallis, OR where I just finished visiting the folks at Greaseworks, purchasing some Viton [pdf] fuel lines and 22 gallons of vegetable oil.

I also attended a monthly meeting of the Northwest Biodiesel Network.

I’m currently headed back to the SF Bay area for S & O’s wedding on 7/8.

After that, I’m headed to the Neighborhood Biodiesel Conference in Golden, CO 7/13-7/15.

And I should be in Indianapolis by that following weekend to rejoin Mary and get some sleep. After three months on the road, I can’t wait to finally stay in one place for more than two nights in a row…

Also, I nearly forgot: if you’re going somewhere this summer, check this guy out – he might give you a ride. Too bad he’s not using biodiesel or other biofuels.

A few weeks ago, I visited Acalanes H.S. and talked to three classes of seniors.

It was a real pleasure to meet these guys and I wish nothing but success to them as they enter the the next step in their education!

So, I finally developed the film from that encounter and uploaded the photos to the school gallery. Enjoy!

Vegetable Oil Road Trip Schools

I am now sitting in the Chance of Rain Cafe in the Hawthorne area of Portland. Minnie made it – the end of the trip!

On Tuesday I drove from Berkeley North along the California coast to Fort Bragg along Highway 101 to the 1 – one of my favorite roads in the world, and camped just North of Fort Bragg (where I glimpsed some harbor seal pups!).

On Wednesday, I drove further up to the Redwoods National and State Parks. Here I am standing next to the aptly named “Big Tree,” 1,500 years old and 30+ foot diameter trunk. The little speck in the bottom right is me. I’m smiling.

Thursday evening, I drove into Corvallis, OR, home of Oregon State University. I spoke with D.H., a chemical engineering professor who filled me in on all the amazing biofuels work going on in the area.

…and then this morning, I drove the last 1.5 hours to Portland to complete the trip. I’ll post more about Portland once I’ve actually met people, etc (and done some laundry!).

We often joke that because of the deep fried smell of our exhaust, we are a rolling wave of obesity. It’s funny, but deep down, this car creates a dichotomy in my beliefs.

Why, you ask? Well, Minnie uses vegetable oil for fuel. On one hand, this is great because she and cars like her are not dependent on foreign sources for petroleum. However, on the other hand, we are using waste vegetable oil from restaurants that fry their foods.

My internal struggle arises because I am a professional proponent of preventive health measures such as eating healthily. It is my job to advise people to avoid eating fried foods because greasy foods lead to problems such as high blood pressure and obesity, and many associated complications.

A friend suggested that I hand out the book, “Fast Food Nation” as we drive to counter-balance our deep-fried message and smell. …which leads to another problem: if I were wildly successful and everyone stopped eating fried foods, where would I get waste vegetable oil fuel for Minnie?

I have to admit that I had been looking forward to visiting Lovecraft because their components look so cool – I love the tatoo-style pierced heart logo on everything. I’m not going to wade into the controversy over whose VegOil conversion kit is better, but I do wish that the components for the conversion kit installed in Minnie looked this cool.

In the hipster Silverlake district in L.A. lies Lovecraft Biofuels. We had a chance to hang out and talk to people in the office, installers, and founder Brian, shooting an hour of video in the process.

Lovecraft’s technology varies from most conversion kits available in the US in that their system uses only one tank (Minnie has a two tank system installed). This means that cars running Lovecraft’s system start on VegOil. To accomplish this, feat, Lovecraft installs hotter glow plugs and alters the Glow Plug Relay so it uses the glow plugs for longer than standard diesel engines. This creates enough heat to start the engine on straight veggie oil – once started, the engine runs normally with no noticeable differences. Without knowing the exact technology used in each kit, it sounds like Lovecraft uses a similar design as Elsbett’s single tank system, but with a more robust fuel filter design.

Lovecraft is located at 4000 Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. They also have a (just opened) shop in Portland, OR located at 1261 Division Street. If you have any questions about vegetable oil as a fuel, or diesel cars in general, I highly recommend stopping by.

We just filled up at the BioFuel Oasis in Berkeley, CA – a startup business of five women selling 100% biodiesel out of a workspace on the west side of Berkeley.

While waiting for our turn at the pump, we met Alania (I really hope I spelled that right) a traveling saleswoman for Livity Outernational – an organic clothing company. She was refueling her Bio-Beetle Rental Car with biodiesel. Apparently, she really enjoys renting from them: “The last time I rented from them, I didn’t want to give the car back!”

Full disclosure: she gave us organic cotton and hemp (for me) and soy (for Mary) tee-shirts to try out (Thanks!). We have to admit that we’re hooked – we both loved the silkscreened pattern, material colors, feel, and fit. And we also thought that it is very cool that all the materials were made from organic sources…

I believe that you can purchase their clothes online or at Whole Foods stores.