Features

It’s not walking and it’s not biking, but it’s transportation that doesn’t hurt the environment. Many say it’s the newest invention that promises to revolutionize the 21st century. 

It’s bio-diesel, made from recycled restaurant oil. Thanks to a number of concerned and motivated local citizens it’s becoming increasingly more accessible to the regular consumer here in Berkeley. 

The City of Berkeley is already on bio-diesel’s cutting edge. In 2001, thanks to a large push from the Ecology Center, a local community and environmental organization, the city became the first to run its entire fleet of recycling trucks on the new alternative fuel. The success of the switch impressed city officials, and today a large part of the city’s diesel fleet—including fire trucks, school busses and public works vehicles—run on bio-diesel at least part of the time. 

Because bio-diesel runs in regular diesel engines with no mechanical modifications needed, the only necessary part of the equation is the supplier. 

Before the city’s switch, consumers had few supply options for the fuel. Several were reduced to brewing it in backyard blenders. 

Alternative outlets now exist. The newest and most promising is the budding Biofuel Oasis, a small biofuel station in South Berkeley. The Biofuel Oasis is still in its beginning stages; it is open several days a week, but with a limited supply of product. There are hopes for expansion though, for it now functions as a mainstay for those few who have made the switch.  

Biofuel Oasis, which only recently has been serving fuel, is the brainchild of SaraHope Smith and Jennifer Radtke. They are limited by city regulations and can only store 55 gallons one site for now. They hope to have a pump eventually, but are still waiting for full approval from the city. 

Nonetheless, Smith and Radtke say hurdles will be overcome and are excited about contributing to a change that many hope will revolutionize the way the gas business is done. “We started because we had to, it makes so much sense,” said Smith. 

Besides reducing harmful emissions, bio-diesel has another redeeming quality setting it apart from fossil fuels—it is made from vegetable oil, a renewable resource. The only modification needed is a process that uses chemicals to thin the oil and create the same viscosity as regular gasoline. bio-diesel recycles oil that would otherwise be dumped in landfills. In addition, its supporters say, engine performance is not reduced 

The Biofuel Oasis does not make its own fuel and instead buys it in bulk from a supplier in Ukiah. At $2.90 per gallon it’s still more expensive than regular gas, but the price has dropped substantially from earlier times. According to Smith, biofuel used to go for upwards of eight dollars a gallon. 

The other option here in Berkeley is the Berkeley Bio-Diesel Co-Op. Officially formed on the one-year anniversary of 9/11, the group has around 30 active members. The general public can’t but from the co-op, but Berkeley residents can join. 

According to co-op member Jason Wilkinson, the Biofuel Oasis has helped fill the supply gap lately so the co-op has turned their efforts more towards advocacy. Last week, the group held a bio-diesel car show with a variety of personal and city vehicles on display. Bio-Diesel Co-Op runs workshops on how to make bio-diesel and are working on getting an established office space. 

“bio-diesel is fuel for the revolution because it has the potential to be democratic and de-centralized,” said Jason Wilkinson, a co-op member. “It’s the one way for the community to reclaim the power we’ve given to unaccountable politicians and multinationals.” 

A third alternative fuel option is a different take on the same concept. As part of business called Neoteric Fuels, local Berkeley resident Craig Reece sells and installs kits on diesel cars that run pure vegetable oil. Unlike bio-diesel, which needs to be thinned, Reeces’ engines run on vegetable oil straight from restaurant fryers. 

Instead of thinning the oil, Reece and his partner came up with an attachment that fits onto the engine and heats and filters the oil. Heating the oil, like adding chemicals, increases the viscosity and allows the car to run without any other modifications. 

The car modification is an add-on, costing in the neighborhood of $600, but it’s a one time thing and frees people from dependence on a Biofuel supplier. Reece gets his fuel from a local restaurant that ends up giving him more fuel per week than he can use. The restaurant is happy because they used to have to pay to have the oil taken away. For his part, Reece has no complaints, either. He gets his gas free. 

One variation of Reece’s add-on is the two tank system where the car starts on regular diesel or bio-diesel and then, with heat from the engine and an auxiliary heater, the car starts running on vegetable oil at the flip of a switch. Like bio-diesel, vegetable oil doesn’t reduce the car’s performance. 

Reece says he can comfortably store enough fuel in his tank and in five-gallon containers in the back of his car to go about 2,400 miles. Unlike bio-diesel, vegetable oil can be purchased in grocery stores. 

With the two tank system “people can still go on the road. They can still fill up on diesel or go to a local Chinese restaurant or Costco,” said Reece.      ˇ