Green machines

>> Is recycled chip fat the fuel of the future?

By JOHN EDMONDS

A lot of people are concerned about urban smog and global warming. But some of them have an unusual way of showing it. Take, for example, Dylan Maxwell, former Green Party candidate and co-owner of the Hemp store Je l'ai. Maxwell sometimes shows his contempt for Planet OPEC by pouring vegetable oil into his car's fuel tank instead of the petroleum-based diesel it was designed to burn. "I'd use canola oil, olive oil, whatever people would give me. The only problem is when it's below -20 degrees and the oil gets too thick," says Maxwell. "Otherwise it works fine!"

But while burning Mazola to get you downtown and back is not a realistic solution to the problem of air pollution, Maxwell and his colleagues at Alternative's Biodiesel Group (ABG) believe that refined fuels based on vegetable oil--biodiesel--are. And with increasing evidence of global warming--and a recent government report estimating 5,000 smog-related deaths in Canada per year--they feel that greener fuels like biodiesel are about to make an entrance on the scene.

"Biodiesel is a processed form of vegetable oil. When Rudolph Diesel invented the diesel engine in 1897, this was the fuel he used," says ABG coordinator and chemical engineer Alex Hill. "We can recycle vegetable oil into an efficient, ecologically superior fuel.

"Biodiesel is actually good for your engine," says Hill. "It cleans it out. And its emissions are cleaner so it cuts back on smog. It also produces fewer greenhouse gases, which cause global warming."

Biodiesel gained status when it was used for official vehicles at the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympic Games. It's also currently burned in some Cincinnati buses and, in places like Germany, biodiesel is commonly available in gas stations along the autobahn. The ABG hopes to create this kind of demand in Montreal. "We want to see biodiesel become the fuel of the downtown core with buses using it, Federal Express vans etc.," says Hill.

The MUCTC takes the idea seriously. The Montreal transit corporation is considering a pilot project with the ABG that would see a hybrid fuel called B20--meaning 20 per cent biodiesel mixed with the regular stuff--used for a year in 10 MUCTC buses.

But the plan has hit a snag: money.

"Normal diesel costs about 50 cents per litre," says Hill. "Biodiesel costs about 70 cents per litre. The MUCTC doesn't have the money in their budget to make up the difference."

MUCTC spokesperson Odelle Paradis confirms this: "We are interested in the project, and in many different areas of environmental technology, but at this time we are making no commitment."

So ABG members are busily looking for government grants and other funding sources to finance the project. But despite the current cash crunch, they're optimistic their efforts will eventually bear fruit.

"We believe this is a fuel for the future. If the government gave a tax break to green fuels, the price would go down. Also, biodiesel is the only fuel that has low sulphur emissions without requiring additives," says Hill. "And with the concern over global warming and smog, the economic incentives to use biodiesel will only grow."

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