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Here you can find information on starting your own Biodiesel project, locating Biodiesel at the pump, Biodiesel news and technical info, books, videos and more...

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Biodiesel on board
By Cynthia Billhartz
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Wednesday, Nov. 30 2005

It's not a political statement.

Mark Fiedler, a staunch Republican and supporter of President George W. Bush,
wants to make that much clear.

But the oil industry's gargantuan profits really get his goat.

"Like the Enron people, they (oil company CEO's) should be put in jail for what
they're doing to the American economy," says Fiedler, 39, of the Mehlville area
in south St. Louis County.

There's not much any one of us can do to change gasoline prices or America's
collective consumption of it. But Fiedler has found a way to decrease his own
dependence on foreign oil: by home-brewing and using biodiesel to fuel his
truck. And he's not alone.

Fiedler is one of about 75 members of the St. Louis Biodiesel Club intent on
saving money, improving air quality and recycling restaurant cooking oil that
otherwise would need to be disposed of. Oh, and his tailpipe permeates the air
with the delicious scent of french fries.

Fiedler became a member of the group and started home-brewing biodiesel after
seeing actress/environmentalist Daryl Hannah, a proponent of the biodiesel
movement, on cable TV's "The O'Reilly Factor."

Now, he fills the two fuel tanks on his Ford F250 pickup (a conversion kit
supplied the extra tank) with cooking oil from local restaurants and biodiesel
that he also creates with used cooking oil.

Terri Zeman of Brentwood has also reconfigured a series of recycled tanks and
plastic drums into a biodiesel production line near her walk-out basement.

Zeman, who ran for St. Louis County Executive in 2002 on the Green Party ticket
and is a leading member of the local chapter of the National Organization for
the Reform of Marijuana Laws, uses recycled cooking oil from Novak's Foxhole
Lounge and other local eateries. She learned of homebrew biodiesel through
NORML, which proposes making biodiesel from hemp oil rather than cooking oil.
She keeps mason jars of various colored oils to demonstrate their viability as
fuel.

David Smith, a St. Louis artist who creates art from recycled metal scraps,
goes a step further by heating his studio and running his 1982 Volkwagen
Vanagon on biodiesel. He's mostly motivated by environmental concerns, but
enjoys saving about $1,300 a year in gasoline costs.

"I love driving my old beat-up truck past the gas station," he says.

Of course, putting home-brewed biodiesel in a brand-new diesel car could gunk
up any warranties on the vehicle's engine.

There's something slightly clandestine about the St. Louis Biodiesel Club. One
of its most active members wanted no part of being interviewed for this story.
And then Fiedler, Smith and Zeman politely declined to divulge the name of
their organization, even though it took all of 15 seconds to find it on the
Internet. Because they don't pay the fuel taxes the rest of us are charged at
the pump, they're skittish.

There aren't any solid statistics on how many people use either biodiesel or a
combination of biodiesel and vegetable oil to fuel their passenger vehicles.
But a search of the Internet reveals hundreds of biodiesel recipes, dozens of
grassroots biodiesel groups nationwide and multitudes of businesses, schools
and government agencies that use biodiesel, some of it mass-produced from soy
beans, some of it brewed from oil used in cafeteria deep fryers.

Greasel connection

Charlie Anderson is owner of Greasel.com, a company in the southwest Missouri
town of Drury that makes and sells conversion kits that enable diesel engines
to burn both biodiesel and pure cooking oil. He recommends using oil from
smaller, independently owned restaurants than from chains. He explains that the
oil from a small place is usually better, and that dealing with an independent
restaurant offers a better chance of talking with someone who can grant
permission.

"Chinese and Japanese restaurants seem to be the best, but there are always
exceptions to the rule," Anderson says. "When you look into the container it
should look dark, and liquid. If you see it is white and creamy, walk away.
Clarity of the oil is more important than color."

Anderson offers the advice to those using straight vegetable oil in diesel
engines that have been converted with one of his kits. But it's good advice for
those changing vegetable into biodiesel, too.

He sells T-shirts that ask for oil in several different languages for those
occasions when Greasel and biodiesel folks come upon a restaurant owner who
doesn't speak English.

No permits, yet

Until recently, Fiedler's biodiesel production line sat beneath a carport in
his Mehlville area driveway, much to the distress of a neighbor. Before setting
up the contraption, Fiedler says he called numerous federal agencies to get
necessary guidelines and to find out whether he needed any permits. He says
they told him he didn't.

Nevertheless, the neighbor turned Fiedler's name over to a St. Louis County
preservation officer, who came, inspected it and told Fiedler that he needed a
bunch of permits and licenses or he'd be fined.

"That was three weeks ago, so I don't think he was able to find anything to get
me on," said Fiedler, noting that his other neighbors cheer him on. He has
since moved his production facility to his dad's transmission shop on Gravois
Avenue in St. Louis.

Sometimes, Zeman points out, people unfamiliar with home-brewed biodiesel get
uneasy when they see one of the jerry-rigged labs go up in a neighbor's yard or
driveway. That uneasiness can turn to panic when people hear the word
"methanol," an ingredient often used to make methamphetamines.

But they usually breathe easy once she explains it to them. Contrary to popular
belief, Zeman says, biodiesel is not highly flammable. Its flashpoint is 325
degrees. She and Fiedler take several gallons of biodiesel along on long trips
to refill their tanks.

The one thing friends and family members of Fiedler, Smith and Zeman fear most
about joining them on those junkets is that their biodiesel vehicles don't stop
at gasoline stations where there are restrooms.

Stations on wheels

Fiedler, Smith and the others say they would like nothing better than to pull
up to a gas station pump and buy biodiesel made from soybeans.

"I'd rather put the American farmer to work than send my money to Russia,
Algeria or Malaysia," says Fieldler.

But finding smaller quantities of the fuel locally is nearly impossible.

Steve Daues, sales manager of The Kiesel Company in St. Louis, says his
oil-supply firm gets calls all the time from people looking to buy biodiesel
for their passenger vehicles. He has to turn them away because Kiesel sells it
only in quantities so large that an individual couldn't possibly store it all.

Daues says that a few gas stations and truck stops in outlying rural areas have
biodiesel pumps, but there are none in the immediate vicinity.

"I'm always curious why they want to do it because it typically costs more than
diesel," he says. "Really, the only people in Missouri motivated to do it are
state and federal agencies who get tax and air-emission credits."

Daues wasn't taking into account the low cost of ingredients needed to make
home-brewed biodiesel.

Zeman recently drove to and from Colorado in her 21-year-old VW station wagon,
using less than 36 gallons of her home-brewed biodiesel that cost her less than
50 cents a gallon - or $18 total - to concoct.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/emaf.nsf/...62570C80037D05F