Published: January 28, 2008 11:55 am      

Biodiesel Car

Local businessman has answer to high fuel costs

FROSTBURG - A local businessman has found a way to power his vehicles while beating the high cost of diesel fuel.

Not only does it conserve energy and cut down the amount of emissions, it smells good, too. The owner of Gianni's Pizza in Frostburg has everything set up to begin producing biodiesel, now all he has to do is wait for the weather to cooperate.

Joe Crawford came up with the idea more than a year ago, and began testing the homemade biodiesel in an old clunker. He and a friend, Frostburg State University physics major J.T. Goodwin, took used vegetable oil from the french fryer inside Crawford's restaurant and Goodwin's 1979 Mercedes-Benz, and ran the filtered grease mixture in the car.

"You'd drive up the road and it would smell like french fries," Crawford said.

"We logged about 10,000 miles on it until it rusted to pieces," Goodwin said.

"One guy said every time he followed it up Main Street, it made him hungry."

With the cost of fuel continuing to rise, Crawford wanted to cut his overhead expenses. In October he was paying $3.09 a gallon for diesel fuel; now he pays $3.39 a gallon. Crawford said he can make his own biodiesel for one-third of that price.

"We can produce this for $1 a gallon," Goodwin said, adding that they decided to use diesel vehicles because the engines get better gas mileage.

But the savings aren't only in the cost of the alternative fuel itself. While the initial outlay to build a biodiesel processor was about $1,500, Crawford said the cost to dispose of the used vegetable oil is about $500 a month, in addition to another $250 he spends on diesel for his delivery vehicles.

And although the processor was a bit of an expense, Goodwin said they'll "recoup that over next summer."

Once they begin using the biodiesel, that is.

While they wanted to have their new fuel source ready for use by December, Mother Nature didn't cooperate: The temperatures in Frostburg have dropped so low that regular diesel fuel has been gelling up, making it difficult to get a diesel engine started.

In anticipation of temperatures below 32 degrees Fahrenheit, Crawford retrofitted a new Volkswagen diesel car with a system that has a heated fuel tank, fuel lines and filter, and water separator. "You can start the car on regular petroleum diesel and when it gets to operating temperature, you flip a switch to circulate coolant throughout the tank so it doesn't clog up," he added.

But extremely cold temperatures, combined with winter winds, have even made it difficult to get the engines of diesel cars to start.

"We had the regular diesel gel up so we definitely have to wait until the temperatures get above 40 degrees (and stay there), since biodiesel has an even lower gel point," Crawford said.

When that happens, the pair is set to burn the biodiesel in two or maybe three vehicles. Crawford has about six months of used vegetable oil saved up, which will be burned as biodiesel in two vehicles.