Fries With That

(Originally published in the Powell River Peak)

When inventor Rudolf Diesel demonstrated his distinctive engine in the early years of the 20th century, it ran on peanut oil, not petroleum.

It took nearly 100 years, but local resident Kevin Egan said he is part of a worldwide movement to return to the original plan for the diesel engine, and switch over from fossil fuels to sustainable fuels.

He pointed out that local restaurants treat used vegetable oil as a messy waste product. "The restaurants are paying people to get rid of it, and the resources to haul it away are wasted," he said. "Instead, we could be using it as fuel."

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Egan, whose background is in organic chemistry and petroleum technology, worked for years for Shaw Cable. But a year ago he had neck surgery to fuse three vertebrae and he's been out on disability leave.

He has taken his free time to help others by assisting them in converting their vehicles. "It's not that difficult to switch a standard diesel vehicle over to run on pure veggie oil," he said. "You can hire somebody to do it for you, and that will cost around $3,000. Or you can do it yourself for less than $1,000, with all the little extras and bits. And if you're prepared, you can do the whole thing in one day."

Egan cautioned against confusing vegetable oil and biodiesel, which are two different things. "Biodiesel is oil that has been transesterified," he said. "That requires a lot of work and some messy chemicals, and it's too much for an individual to handle in most cases. With veggie oil, you can run it straight out of the fryer. You just have to filter out food particles and remove any water that got in from cooking."

He noted that it takes about 15 minutes to filter a 55-gallon drum. "That's about 250 litres," he said. "I've been getting it for free from local restaurants, since they'd have to pay to have it disposed of. What would that much diesel fuel cost at current prices?"

He sets up the vehicles with two tanks, one for diesel and one for vegetable oil. He said that cars cold-start better on standard diesel, and it's also good to have an auxiliary system if people using the system are on the road and vegetable oil is not available. "We have two full-size, four-wheel-drive Mitsubishi Delicas that we imported from Japan, and our family goes through more milk in a week than diesel," he said. "I'd say that's pretty good."

Egan said that diesel cars have not been offered for sale in the United States and Canada because of emissions concerns, although diesel pickups are available. Mercedes and Volkswagen produce diesel models, and various Japanese companies make diesel cars for their own domestic market, like the Delicas he imported. Egan estimates that about one in 20 vehicles in Powell River run on diesel. "And we have enough veggie oils being wasted here, now, to power those vehicles," he said.

Another advantage, he added, is that vegetable oils are much more stable than petroleum fuels. "You can take a big drum and carry it in the back of your van," he said. "It doesn't smell bad, and it can't blow up."

Via word of mouth and computer bulletin boards, Egan has helped people with conversions in other parts of BC, from Campbell River to Kelowna. "I'd like to do some in Powell River," he said. "I'm talking with a couple of people, and I may be helping the automotive class at Brooks Secondary School convert a Mercedes diesel over to veggie. This is the best form of community-oriented recycling, reusing things locally, saving resources and money."

Anyone interested in having Egan convert a vehicle can email him at veggievan (at) shaw (dot)ca.