Behind virtually every restaurant in America, you will find three dumpsters: One for trash, one for flattened cardboard boxes, and one for used cooking oil. (The latter is actually more of rectangular tank on wheels than it is a dumpster.) It is not widely known, but virtually all diesel cars and trucks can run on cooking oil–new or used. This is commonly called “biodiesel” or “greasel.” In essence, all that you need to do is filter the liquid cooking oil through some cloth (typically a couple of thicknesses of cheese cloth) to get rid of the particulate crud, and voila! Free fuel.
When diesel engines were first designed, they were envisioned to run on peanut oil or other vegetable-based oils. In fact, it was only because the gas companies set up a large refinery/fractioning infrastructure that crude-oil based diesel came to dominate the marketplace. I have read that running diesel engines on cooking oil results in longer engine life due to better lubrication and reportedly fewer harmful emissions.
Greasel Conversions, Inc., a small company headquartered in Missouri, makes a greasel conversion kit for diesel engines. My advice: If you own a diesel vehicle, get a Greasel kit. If you have not yet bought a 4WD for your retreat, make it a diesel (unless the exhaust smell gives you headaches), and get a Greasel kit.
Here is the company’s contact information:
Greasel Conversions, Inc.
HC 73 Box 157D
Drury, MO 65638 USAE-mail: charlie@greasel.com or pillard@greasel.com
Phone: 1 (866)473-2735
For some information on commercial biodiesel, see the Freedom Solutions website, as well as the Grand-daddy of biodiesel web sites.
I should also mention that you don’t have to burn used cooking oil. Newly-pressed oil works fine too. (Newly-pressed corn, sunflower, rapeseed, or canola oil also work fine.)For example, biodiesel fuel can be purchased at the pump in Europe, where the plant source is usually rapeseed oil.
When the corn oil that your store in your pantry goes rancid and you replace it, SAVE that old stuff. (Mark the label with a big red X with a magic marker so that you don’t use it for cooking by mistake.) Save it to burn in your diesels!