Earth Day 2006

Run the family car on 56-cent fuel

(Last in 3-part series)

Do your parents complain about the cost of fuel for your family car? This month, you can meet a St. Louis woman whose car runs on homemade fuel that costs less than 56 cents per gallon?

Maude Essen's 1984 Mercedes diesel sedan will be on display at the St. Louis Earth Day 2006 on Sunday, April 23. The clean environment event will be held in Forest Park.

Ms. Essen's biodiesel car

Ms. Essen is a member of the St. Louis Biofuels Club. The local group is interested in finding alternatives to petroleum-based fuels.

In her case, she refines her car's fuel from waste fryer grease from a local Central West End restaurant. The refining is done in her garage with equipment she built herself.

"I get the fryer grease for free. Then, it takes 38 cents per gallon for the refining chemicals. And I even pay 17½-cents-per-gallon in state fuel taxes," Ms. Essen said.

Another interesting by-product: Her car doesn't have that typically smelly diesel exhaust. Her car's tailpipe emissions smell more like French fries.

Two main themes for Earth Day 2006 are improving water quality and developing alternative fuels. The St. Louis Biofuels Club will demonstrate alternative fuels.

(Last month, Young Saint Louis.com highlighted the water quality efforts of a local kids' Stream Team group. To read that story, click here. For more on the total Earth Day 2006 program, visit www.stlouisearthday.org.)

The 3 stages of biodiesel refining

Ms. Essen is suggesting that kids might like to bring some old fryer grease to Earth Day. Then, the Biofuels Club members will have refining equipment available where the kids can help make a batch of biodiesel fuel.

Last year, the club used some of its biodiesel fuel to power generators that supplied electricity to Earth Day displays. The members plan to do that again this year.

Rapidly rising petroleum prices and the U.S. dependency on foreign oil has increased interest in alternative fuels. Also, concern about thinning of the ozone layer and rising respiratory health issues add to interest in alternative fuels.

Ms. Essen's group said biodiesel fuels sharply reduce hazardous exhaust emissions. These include carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, sulfur and particulates. Sulfur emissions are eliminated since biodiesel fuel contains no sulfur.

There is a Missouri company that converts diesels to use various biodiesel fuels. The company is Greasel Conversions, Inc. in Drury, Mo. To get more information about that company, visit www.greasel.com.

One type of alternative fuel that's getting a lot of attention in the Midwest is ethanol. That's because it's made from corn and burns in gasoline-powered vehicles.

Also, there is a National Corn to Ethanol Research Center in Edwardsville, Ill. And a commercial ethanol production plant is being built in mid-Missouri.

A lot of the ethanol interest is from farm groups. They see ethanol as a whole new market for Midwest corn. Farmers complain that traditional corn markets are dwindling, thus keeping prices low.

Environmentalists like ethanol because it burns cleaner and corn is a renewable resource.

But, increased ethanol production doesn't automatically cut dependency on foreign oil.

For one thing, gasoline engines aren't able to burn 100 per cent ethanol. But, a blend of ethanol and gasoline will work. Most suggestions are for a 10 to 20 per cent ethanol content for gasoline-powered cars.

Laws to require gas stations to offer ethanol/gasoline blends are being considered across the country.

But, for Ms. Essen and her Biofuels Club members, they are focused on better ways to make alternative fuels that work in diesel engines.

At the Earth Day demonstration, they will hand out a flyer that lists all sorts of information resources on biodiesel. Included are websites that bring together individuals around the world interested in alternative fuels.

One website is designed to tell biodiesel "home-brewers" how to refine biodiesel fuel. That's at http://biodieselcommunity.org. There's another that explains how to build a garage refining plant like Ms. Essen has. That's at http://localB100.com/book.html.

If you're interested in helping to clean up the environment, St. Louis Earth Day 2006 would be a good place to get ideas.