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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us August 12, 2005 Biodiesel gains ground as oil prices rise By Robert Plain Ashland Daily Tidings Rob Pendell processes fryer grease that he picked up Wednesday from local restaurants and turns it into biodiesel that can help fuel cars. Orville Hector | Ashland Daily Tidings Why fill an automobile on fossil fuel when it’s becoming increasingly easier to grow your own gas? As traditional fuel prices top unprecedented levels, gas substitutes are increasingly more viable. Many are turning to biodiesel, an alternative to traditional petroleum products made from vegetable oil. Kettle Chips, a nationwide brand of potato chips based in Salem, is considering using its waste oil to make biodiesel, according to company spokesman Jim Green. The Oregon Legislature considered the merits of biodiesel. Lawmakers nearly passed a bill that would have encouraged the use of biodiesel. Rep. Peter Buckley, D-Ashland, was an original sponsor of the bill, though he eventually voted against it because it was watered down with anti-environmental riders, he said. Closer to home, the Phoenix Organic Farm and Garden Center recently opened a full-service biodiesel filling station. In Ashland, one entrepreneur has begun to make his own biodiesel from recycled fryalator grease. It works Biodiesel works just like regular diesel gas and can be run in any car that operates on diesel fuel — the major difference being that diesel is a petroleum product mined from the earth, and biodiesel is a product of corn, soy and canola and is a renewable resource. Phoenix Organics, which has been selling biodiesel for three years and just received the necessary licensing to pump it directly into cars, gets their product from a national market, said David Tourzan, a math and science teacher who works part time at the store. Corn, soy, canola and rapeseed grown in the Midwest are processed into vegetable oil and distributed around the country as biodiesel. The variety they use is mixed with 1 percent regular diesel fuel so that it will be eligible for federal subsidies and thus cheaper. They sell it for $2.99 a gallon. While that is currently a few cents more expensive than traditional diesel fuel, the savings come in terms of a cleaner environment, a more renewable resource and a stronger national economy. Tourzan explains that biodiesel reduces unhealthy exhaust emissions and greenhouse gases, and creates a viable domestic energy supply. Proponents of biodiesel assert it can help free the industrialized world from its dependence on foreign oil. “The global economy runs on fossil fuels, which is not a stable, long-term source,” Tourzan said. “It causes the United States to support undemocratic, authoritarian regimes. By reducing our dependence on foreign oil, the whole world would benefit by reducing the power of these repressive governments and multinational corporations.” Homemade variety Ashland resident Rob Pendell makes a form of biodiesel from recycled food-grade vegetable oil. This variety is more complicated to run in a car, as it cannot be used effectively in a cold engine, but it is also less expensive. His blend sells for $2 a gallon. In a 55-gallon drum in the back of his pickup truck, he collects used deep-fryer grease from several restaurants in Ashland including the Wild Goose, Happy Falafel and the Black Sheep among others. At his shop on East Main Street, the grease is processed into biodiesel. “Oil is getting harder to pull out of the ground,” he said. “This is the very beginning of a traumatic oil crisis. It spiked five months ago and will never again come down (in price). It’s going to continue to rise until it won’t be economical to drive a car anymore. It seems very logical to me to start looking for a fuel alternative.” Unless, of course, the car can run on vegetable oil, which all diesel engines can. But because the viscosity of vegetable oil is different from that of diesel gas, it must be warmed up before it can run through a combustion engine. Some consumers equip their biodiesel car with two tanks, one for straight diesel gas to start the car and one for biodiesel once the engine is warm, or have a tank that heats the biodiesel before the car starts. Pendell says he has about 12 regular customers and 12 occasional customers and he is maxed out. “I sell it as quickly as I can make it,” he said. “There is more market than I have capability to produce.” Phoenix Organics has serviced 38 different customers, as of Wednesday, since opening the full-service station two weeks ago. Earlier this week, two 1970s vintage diesel Mercedes vehicles were filling up in Phoenix. Gabe Sacco said he came from Ashland to fill his friend’s car. “It’s worth driving to Phoenix for gas if it means you don’t have to support the big oil companies,” he said. “Anything you can do to not fund the war for oil.” Staff writer Robert Plain can be reached at 482-3456 x 3040 or [email protected]. 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