Strategic View: My Vegginator’s a BABE
Adam Seitchik
Trillium Asset Management Corporation
Investing for a Better World
Summer 2007
Over spring break I took a trip to the French Quarter to
participate in a BABE rally. No, it’s
not what you think! BABE stands for Big
Apple to Big Easy, and is in the class of “banger” car rallies first popularized
in Europe. A banger is any car bought
for $250 or less. My teammates picked
up a 1983 Mercedes diesel sedan, converted it to run on recycled vegetable oil
(“yellow grease”), and we entered BABE with about 50 other bangers.[1]
Yellow grease runs very nicely through a diesel engine, as
long as the oil is initially filtered, dewatered, and preheated. Although the oil creates greenhouse gases
when burned, it is part of a closed renewable system – first taking CO2
from the atmosphere when the vegetables are grown, and then releasing it back
when the oil is consumed. Thus the net
impact on the environment is much less than from burning fossil fuels. Veggie oil also burns much cleaner than
diesel.
The Green Grease Monkeys converted our car to run on recycled
veggie oil. The Monkeys installed an
auxiliary tank in the trunk for the yellow grease. Their system first warms up the oil, and then we flip a few
solenoid switches on the dashboard to shift circulation from diesel to the
veggie tank.
While our car (The Vegginator) runs on recycled vegetable
oil, through a chemical process the oil can be separated into biodiesel and
glycerin (which is used in soaps). The
biodiesel can be pumped directly into a diesel fuel tank, without
pre-warming. If we recycled two-thirds
of the country’s yellow grease into biodiesel every year, it would translate
into over 200 million gallons of fuel.[2] Demand for yellow grease is on the rise, and
restaurants that were paying to get rid of their oil are now finding a ready market. A plant scheduled to open next year will
produce three million gallons of biodiesel using grease collected from 400
Manhattan restaurants at no cost.[3]
The veggie conversion system worked beautifully through the
Smokies and the Blue Ridge Mountains.
The other bangers were a sight to behold, including a UK entry with half
the top sheared off and a massive Union Jack flying from a curtain-rod
flagpole. This colorful team performed
a “flag break” ceremony every morning in the parking lot, complete with
salutes, music (“Rule Britannia”) and a formal flag raising.
Team Greasers made it from Boston to New Orleans on 75
gallons of recycled veggie oil and only a half tank of diesel. Once there we met up with an enterprising
fellow who is powering his house and all of his vehicles on yellow grease. He generously gave us 60 gallons for the way
home and we headed down to the French Quarter to celebrate with When Pigs Fly,
Trust in Rust and the other BABE teams.
Bringing biodiesel to scale raises a host of issues, not the
least of which are pressure on the food supply and the risk of
deforestation. Recycled veggie oil is
an easy first step. If we all keep
working at it, I expect in a few years to look back on the Vegginator as a
quaint story on our path to a greener energy future.