In the winter of 2005, Cynthia Shelton embarked on a journey not many of us would be keen on pursuing- a solo drive from California to Massachusetts in a 1973 Mercedes run on straight vegetable oil. She was successful in her journey- documented here- but came away feeling like the people she met on the road needed a way to connect. What better way to connect than through the internet? Hence the birth of The National VegOil Board. Spearheaded by Cynthia and other VegOil activists, The NVOB aims to educate the public as well as promote more research into straight veggie oil as a reliable and clean burning fuel.
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Technorati Tags: straight vegetable oil, National VegOil Board, Cynthia Shelton, veggie oil, svo, grease car, green, sustainable, ryanishungry, sanfrancisco
Oh my god, this woman is in MA? I’m about to buy a diesel car, I want to talk to her! I wish I could have come with you to this shoot.. man…..
PS: your comment thing is acting funny.. i had to right click and open in a new window, and i don’t have a pop-up blocker.
Serra -
Actually I am in CA now. But I know folks in MA who can help you pick a kit and an installer and mentor you along the way. Write to vegoil@vegoil.us and we can start a conversation.
Thanks that was a very interesting video. It was refreshing to see the issue of safety/pollution being addressed in terms of the need to get the stuff certified.
Id agree that there is no single solution to powering transport in future, and everything needs to be looked at and experimented with. I remain skeptical about how much of the fuel burden vegetable oil can handle - is there anywhere I can get figures on how much waste vegetable oil is potentially available, so thats its possible to guesstimate how many people this stuff could reasonably power in future if all the other barriers disappear?
“If all the other barriers disappear” is a big if.
Certain to say that we are not recycling all of the WVO out there to recycle.
Also that certifying WVO as a legal fuel is highly unlikely unless the standards are allowed a very broad and uncontrollable variance.
The 2005 DOE Annual Energy Outlook predicts that by 2010 we will be consuming 22.98 million barrels per day of petroleum. We could compare that with the quantities of plant oil produced in this country and determine a ballpark number of how much more we will have to produce to satisfy both fuel and food demands.
More research needs to be done on fast-growing high-yield, oil-producing plants not for consumption. One hopeful area includes aquatic plants (algae) which have no stem or roughage to contend with, regenerate faster than terrestrial plants and can be grown in vertical tubes. Harvesting the oil continues to be a challenge.
The National VegOil Board invites anyone interested in researching particular relevant topics such as this to become a member and help build the archive of our collective knowledge, available to the public.
Cynthia Shelton
vegoil@vegoil.us
Amazing. Thank you for this great information, I am going to Vegoil.us now!
Thanks for the extra info