by PATRICK LEJTENYI

With gas prices going through the roof, it should come as no big surprise that some motorists are looking for alternative sources to power their cars. Enter biodiesel. The combination of vegetable oil, animal fat and cooking oil is intriguing to green-minded drivers, although it hasn't taken off just yet.

Even municipal authorities have experimented with the stuff. The closest Montrealers came to enjoying the benefits of biodiesel on a mass scale came between March 2002 and March 2003, when the Montreal Transit Corporation (STM) launched a pilot project to fuel buses with a mix of biodiesel and petrodiesel. By all accounts successful environmentally - the STM says it reduced carbon dioxide emissions by 1,300 tonnes - the price tag forced the transit corporation to put the kibosh on the project until biodiesel became more affordable. STM rep Brigitte Sénécal says the cost wasn't equipping the fleet or transporting fuel, but the cost of the biodiesel-diesel mix itself. It cost about 20 cents more per litre for the mixture, and, as the STM went through 42.5-million litres of gas last year, it adds up.

But the DIY ethic lives for at least a handful of Quebecers. Dylan Perceval-Maxwell, owner of the hemp Boutique Je L'Ai on Duluth and the weird green VW Golf that proudly states it runs on vegetable oil, says biodiesel is relatively easy to make. All you need are the ingredients and a little technical savvy.

"It's very simple," he says. "But you don't want to fall asleep while you're doing it, because you might blow yourself up."

With that in mind, Perceval-Maxwell is keen to spread the word about biodiesel. He says he's received a couple of phone calls from people interested in converting to biodiesel in the last week alone, but says he gets inquiries on a fairly regular basis. "One reason more people are doing it is because they see more and more people doing it," he says. "If a person sees three different vehicles, they think, ‘This has to be legit.'"

Perceval-Maxwell can count on two hands the number of people he knows who have biodiesel vehicles, but thinks the number will grow once people realize how easy it is to convert. "In one day I converted two-and-a-half cars," he says.

Energy-efficient cars are certainly gaining popularity. Increasingly, Smart Cars are being seen on city streets alongside ungainly SUVs and Hummers. Some 800 Smart Cars have been sold in Quebec, just over a quarter of the national total. And the Smart Car may also be appealing to the smart set: the boutique Hotel Godin is including one as part of a package deal, and, retailing as it does at about $26,000 per, the Smart has an undeniable cachet. Meanwhile, hybrid cars like the Toyota Prius are selling more than ever, with Prius sales up 12 per cent to 64,000 North American sales last quarter alone. And Quebec City announced last week that it would be expanding its fleet of hybrid vehicles from four to 22 by the end of the year.

Still, Perceval-Maxwell acknowledges that much remains to be done. "The convenience of going to a gas station and pumping your car can't be beat," he says. In the meantime, he continues to hand out information and how-to pamphlets at his store at 159 Duluth E.