Vegetable Oil Road Trip

The more we travel, we realize that we were spoiled. In Madison, recycling was convenient – we easily recycled all of our aluminum, plastic, glass, paper and cardboard in a city provided container every other week on the curbside. Most cities we have visited do not provide this convenience and we have found that most items that could be recycled are thrown in the trash.

Recycling reduces the energy and raw materials for production and reduces waste going to landfills. Some examples:
- Aluminum made from recycled aluminum instead of raw ore requires 95% less energy.
- Recycling 1 ton of plastic reduces CO2 emissions by about 1 ton.
-Between 2-4 barrels of oil is saved by recycling 1 ton of paper.
http://www.nrdc.org/cities/recycling/recyc/recytbls.asp

Two methods of recycling exist:
Curbside Pickup:
Pro: Convenient for residents, More material gets recycled
Con: Costly for taxpayers
Drop-off Recycling Center:
Pro: Inexpensive for taxpayers
Con: Less material gets recycled, Inconvenient

Several hard items to recycle are batteries, electronics, and tires and they need to be taken to special locations. While traveling, we saw that Savannah sets up a tent for hard to recycle items at their annual Earth Day Celebration. I thought that was such a convenient process for recycling.

Two good recycling guides are:
-This site has more information about what and why we should recycle.
http://www.recycling-guide.org.uk/
-This site will help you find out what is available in your city.
http://www.earth911.org/static.html

As we drove closer to the beach, we were able to catch glimpses of the white sand and blue water and began to play the only beach music we have: Beach Boys. Though the area is very developed and commercialized, many parks provide a more pristine experience of the beaches. We were fortunate enough to be able to get a reservation at Grayton Beach, where we ate and slept in our tent next to a lake just 50 yards from the Gulf Coast. We also attempted to fish as well but I think we managed to scare all the fish away. We could not have picked a better spot if we wanted to.

Veering off of the scenic 30-A gave us a more local flavor of the area (very tan people on beaches and rowdy after-work crowd at the bars). We had beer and the best crab cakes ever at one of the bars. We were also lucky enough to catch a very laid-back, hippie bar changing their oil. The vegetable hunting has led us to some of the greatest local restaurants and eating at the neighborhood joints have led us to find vegetable oil.

We were as giddy as children as we neared Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge because neither of us has visited a swamp before and we couldn’t pass us a chance to visit something called Okefenokee. Since we were arriving later in the day, we were wisely informed to wait until the next morning to see the Swamp at cooler temperature. So, we set up camp by the St. Mary’s River at the Trader’s Hill Recreational Area.

As we were enjoying our pears, we hear a man call out, “Hey buddy!” We look around and see that he was talking to us. He and his wife needed help and in the process of doing so, we learned about the area surrounding the river (since they both grew up in the area) and they learned about vegetable oil powered cars. The best part of the conversation was when we told them we have only spent $175 on fuel in the past month. They reply, “No way! We spend that much in a week.”

After enjoying a dip in the clear river and sleeping under the stars, we headed to the Refuge early, as instructed by the locals. That is the best time to see the wildlife (early in the cool morning). And they were right. We watched an otter play, mom and two baby alligators swimming, three other alligators waiting for food and basking in the sun, a possum climbing through the trees, colorful birds and butterflies and numerous darting lizards.

Before breaking camp, we made sure to grab BBQ from a stand in the nearest town. The stand consisted of a trailer, a smoker and several picnic tables. We had a suspicion that their BBQ was going to be good – when we pulled up, we saw many locals taking a break for sandwiches there. We had satisfying BBQ pork and sliced beef sandwiches.

Savannah, Georgia is a city that seems perpetually slow and languid with its large trees with overhanging Spanish moss creating an umbrella over streets and numerous parks that beckon you to sit and enjoy the shade. This is true of the historic district of Savannah, where the city was once built as walkable neighborhoods, each centered on a square park. The district has architecturally remarkable mansions and townhouses decorated with beautiful ironwork. We spent an afternoon exploring the parks and neighborhoods, admiring our surroundings and enjoying the slow pace.

Savannah is also known as an important port and naturally River Street runs right next to the Savannah River to allow tourists and locals alike to people and boat-watch. We strolled the cobblestone street and filled our bellies with seafood (crabs and oysters) and tasted local beers. And, as we watched the boats and barges, we noticed two porpoises traveling down the river. Unfortunately, we were not quick enough to take pictures.

In addition to seafood, we had to get our fill of Southern food while we were in Georgia. We visited two local food joints and had some of the best Southern food we have ever tasted (pan-fried pork chops, collard green, okra, sweet potatos). Before leaving, we made sure to get the daily special list to recreate the meals ourselves.

We can’t wait to visit Savannah and LT again.

On Monday, we visited with the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th graders at the St. Mary’s School in Goldsboro, NC.

A common questions we get from students – almost always from boys – is: does adding the vegetable oil tank in the trunk of the car increase the risk of explosion during car accidents?” I then have to convince everyone that adding a vegetable oil tank does not make Minnie The Car a rolling stick of dynamite, and that vehicle explosions pretty much never happen outside of Hollywood, California.

While trying unsuccessfully to explain this fact (much lamented by 8th grade boys everywhere), Miss Caroline from the 5th grade raised her hand and asked a question that completely stumped me: “what is the flammability of vegetable oil?”

I sputtered for a moment and managed to say that “well, it’s much less than gasoline, and less than diesel, but I don’t know how much less.” I congratulated her on stumping me, and promised her a much more thorough explanation in a Q&A post.

So, let’s first look at what flammability means, a good way of measuring it, and finally, we’ll compare the flammability of vegetable oil to other common liquids and fuels.

Flammability
By asking how flammable something is, we are asking how easily can it catch fire. The best way to look at the flammability of a liquid fuel is to look at its flashpoint. The flashpoint is the temperature above which a liquid can form an ignitable vapor above the surface of the fuel.

Without going into the science of vapor pressure, if a fuel is warmer than its flashpoint, if you hold a match to the surface, it will catch fire and burn. The lower the flashpoint, the easier it is to catch a fuel on fire. Gasoline, with a flashpoint of -43F is extremely flammable, while Canola oil with a flashpoint of 600F is flame retardant by comparison.

Flashpoint is measured by slowly heating a sample of the fuel in a chamber with a spark plug. As the temperature rises, the spark plug makes sparks – the temperature where the first flames form is the flash point.

Flashpoints of some common fuels:
Gasoline: -45F/-43C
Diesel: 143F/62C
Biodiesel: 300F/149C
Canola Oil: 600F/320C
Soybean Oil: 491F/255C

So, Miss Caroline, if you look at the numbers above, you’ll see that vegetable oil is much less flammable than gasoline, diesel, or biodiesel.

Source research:
Wikipedia: Vapor_pressure

Wikipedia: Flammability

Wikipedia: Flash_point

MSDS definition of flashpoint

biodiesel.org.au’s biodiesel facts

biodiesel.org’s safety FAQ

Update:
Looks like I messed up the flashpoint for biodiesel – it is actually 260 to 300F, not 212F as I previously wrote. Thanks anonymous commenter for keeping me on my toes!

However, I believe that 143F is the correct flash point for petroleum diesel – can you please tell where you found 77F?

Goldsboro, NC is the home of the Seymore-Johnson air force base – the training center for all F-15E Strike Eagle pilots and weapons system officers (WSOs) for the air force. While there, I had the somewhat surreal experience of explaining biofuels to a bunch fighter pilots – mostly lieutenants and captains, but their instructors (majors and colonels) were also very interested. Here’s the thing I learned: the stereotype of meat-headed pilot is completely wrong – these guys and gals were smart – they asked a lot of insightful questions, and really challenged me to give them good information.

While talking to the pilots, I met Mrs. M., a science teacher for the St. Mary’s School in Goldsboro. After talking to her for a bit, she invited us to give our talk to her school the following Monday morning — only three days in the future!

On Monday, we spoke to about 80 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th graders – the first time we had ever spoken to a mixed age group. It was pretty difficult to come up with a talk that would interest the older kids without boring the younger ones (and vice-versa). We weren’t perfect, but I think we managed to do okay.

See this gallery for photos of schoolchildren and pilots admiring the car:

Vegetable Oil Road Trip Schools

A few updates:
Now that our presentation has gotten kicked around by several audiences, we are pretty close to publishing all our slides on the website for anyone to see (one of the many, many things we are working on for the website).

Speaking of the website, you may have noticed a few changes – we are working to streamline things while expanding the number articles we have available.

Hello everyone! We’ve just reached the one month point. Here are some highlights of the trip…

So far, we have taught approximately 430 primary school students and 20 fighter pilot and WSO students. We have also talked to numerous strangers, friends, and even a few dogs about biofuels.

We have traveled through 13 states, driving 3948 miles, using only 14.969 gallons of petroleum diesel, and we’ve paid $175 for fuel so far (biofuels and petroleum combined).

Since we get 25 miles per gallon, that works out to 90.5% of our trip on biofuels (this is skewed low due to the fact that we have a full tank of biodiesel. Don’t worry – as we go along, that number will drop, but so far, we are meeting our goal of 90% biofuels.

Out of 30-ish nights on the road, we have spent 1 in a motel, 1 in a campground (last night), 1 was paid for by Mary’s residency program, 3 on Sacha’s Marriott points, and the rest have been on the couches of our many extremely generous (and far-flung) friends and family. Heartfelt thanks to each of you for helping us make this trip a reality – you are the reason we are able to complete this trip.

We’ve also reached our 100th post to this blog.

Thanks everyone who is following along – we appreciate it immensly.

Please also note that we have been away from reliable internet for the past few days, so our blog posts have been slow – we’ll get better, we promise!

We have (finally) uploaded photos from our talks in Goldsboro, NC – see the gallery here:

Vegetable Oil Road Trip Schools

Waaay back, four weeks ago in Indianapolis, we received an email message that said (paraphrasing):

Hi – I saw your car in traffic today, and I’m intrigued by the technology. When I got home, I noticed drops of an oily substance on my windshield – do you know what that was?

After checking fluid levels, I wrote back (rather sure of myself) that I had no idea what oily substance our correspondent was referring to. Apparently, I should have looked a little closer…

Last Friday evening, when showing Minnie off to some interested fighter pilots (long story), I noticed that one of the fuel injector lines was leaking pretty badly. A quick glance underneath the car revealed that the underbody of the car is coated in vegetable oil. Oops – looks like we found the “oily substance!”

A comedy of errors now ensues where I find out that the tool designed by Mercedes Benz to fix this problem costs $60, and after much consternation and calling of parts departments, I realize that a 17mm crows foot would do the job just fine, for much less. After working for more than two days to research and obtain the proper tool, the actual repair took literally 3 seconds in the Sears parking lot. Sigh.

We’re in the middle of a busy stretch right now, here’s the highlights – I promise we’ll post on all this stuff soon!

• We’re doing great – the warm weather is a welcome change, and no one is sick anymore
• The car is doing great – we just completed an oil change, replaced a door seal (finally!), and fixed a leaky injector line (it may have been leaking since day 1 – oops!)
• We received the GPS unit, and aside from a few quirks, it has been very helpful
• Actually, I love it, and Mary hated it, until we figured out how to make it speak en Espanol.
• Now she still hates it, but enjoys the chance to practice en Espanol.
• We visited the Piedmont biofuels coop today and shot about 1.5 hours of video, met the members, a director or two, and filled up with about 10 gallons of biodiesel and about 36 gallons of vegetable oil (thanks guys!)
• Tomorrow morning, we’ll be talking to the students at the St. Mary’s School here in Goldsboro, and then we’ll drive 5 hours to Savannah, GA – a place we’ve both wanted to visit for quite some time…

Hi all – I know we’re having problems with the main website – www.vegetableoilroadtrip.com.

My hosting service was trying to upgrade servers and ran into issues – we should be live again in about an hour or two. Sorry!

UPDATE: Looks like the problem’s fixed and we’re back on line.