Certification Needed for Motor Fuel
By Bill Turque
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Fairfax County officials say that for now, at least, vegetable oil's best use is for deep-frying chicken, not as an alternative fuel.
The Board of Supervisors recently asked County Executive Anthony H. Griffin to look into the possibility of starting a vegetable oil exchange program similar to one in Montgomery County. Montgomery has set up a Web page, http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/veggieoil, to help restaurants and other businesses dispose of waste cooking oil by giving it to motorists.
Biodiesel fuels (made from plant or animal fats and some form of alcohol) are used by many localities, such as the City of Falls Church, to run trucks or buses. But vegetable oil is another matter, said Griffin, and it poses what he regards as legal barriers to starting such an exchange.
Griffin said that unlike biodiesel, vegetable oil is not certified by the federal government for use as a motor oil. He also said that engine systems modified to use vegetable oil require certification by the Environmental Protection Agency.
"To date, no vegetable oil conversion has achieved EPA certification," he said in a memo to board members, and use of any of the conversion kits offered on the market "would be considered illegal tampering" with an emissions system.
Griffin said that research on vegetable oil and what it does to fuel emissions is unclear. He cited a Department of Energy study showing that vegetable oil actually reduces the life of engines and can damage catalytic converters and filter traps.
He recommended against establishing the exchange, but said the issue could be revisited "at some future date," when vegetable oil and engine conversion are both certified by the federal government.
None of these issues seems to have stopped Montgomery County's efforts. A look at the site last week showed a robust market of parties eager to discard used vegetable oil and motorists willing to use it. A number of the postings came from people who had used oil to deep fry Thanksgiving turkeys. They had takers.
"Looking for used veggie oil for our VW Jetta 'greasecar.' Can pick up weekly or monthly," said one posting from Takoma Park.
An earlier November posting said: "Visiting family around Thanksgiving from Ohio. I would like to get oil for the drive back. Thanks!"
The idea of vegetable oil as a fuel is hardly new. Engineer Rudolf Diesel used peanut oil to demonstrate his new engine at the Paris World Exposition in 1900.
Reliable estimates of the number of motorists who use cars powered by pure vegetable oil are hard to come by. One 2006 estimate from Golden Fuel Systems of Springfield, Mo., a leading manufacturer of conversion kits, placed it at between 8,000 and 10,000.
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