12 replies to this topic

[Julie]

I saw a great piece on TV today about "The Big Lemon" which is a bus company in Brighton UK. It's fleet of buses runs on recycled vegetable oil which is collected on a daily basis from local catering businesses. The company also supplies fresh oil to their catering friends - thus creating another income stream for their own business and ensuring that oil is changed regularly in the various eateries.

What a great initiative!

If only I had money to invest I'd love to establish something like this where I live.

More here : http://www.thebiglemon.com/

[artistry]

I love it, what an amazing thing to do. The use of the used oil in the buses, saves the catering companies the time and the effort of disposal, the bus company saves money and it's a cleaner way to drive. Plus supplying new oil to the catering companies helps them in the circle. Fantastic in its conceot. Thanks for the post.

[Liv]

That is a really good idea, and despite living in the UK I have never heard of the company. I know there is a taxi firm here in Manchester who are trying to run their fleet completely off recycled vegetable oil. They have run in to problems with the council, who appear to be dragging their feet. I find this odd when the Government is supposed to be so pro-green! I would LOVE to be able to run my car in this way, I think it is most definitely the way forward.

[Karim Jessa]

This is very interesting. Recycled cooking oil! I don't own a car, but if I could get a car that ran on recycled cooking oil I'd definitely get one. And I'd be self sufficient in fuel supply. You see, we eat east Indian food. The amount of cooking oil we use, and the amount of used oil we discard, we wouldn't need to go anywhere else for refueling. We could probably supply the neighborhood.

It's incredible to think how much cooking oil must be used, and discarded, if entire buses can run on just the recycled oil. Think how much recycled oil must be available in India, the great land of deep frying.

[Germs]

Sounds like a very clever and interesting idea, hopefully they will continue to succeed as a business as more and more people start going green.

[zararina]

It was really great idea and invention.
Instead of just throwing those used vegetable oil, it was still use as fuel for such vehicle. That green bus should be followed by other bus company too on using alternative and greener fuels. Specially if they could afford to convert their vehicles.

[Germs]

zararina, on 20 November 2011 - 06:58 AM, said:

It was really great idea and invention.
Instead of just throwing those used vegetable oil, it was still use as fuel for such vehicle. That green bus should be followed by other bus company too on using alternative and greener fuels. Specially if they could afford to convert their vehicles.

Hopefully we will see more bus companies following these examples, personally i think they will.

[karmaman]

The buses near here all run on natural gas, which is more efficient but still not as good as used cooking oil. A few people around here have converted their diesel cars into oil cars, and they love it. One guy was telling me that if you use a diesel car or truck, you can buy a $400 kit and convert it yourself without a lot of trouble.

[Germs]

karmaman, on 23 November 2011 - 10:26 AM, said:

The buses near here all run on natural gas, which is more efficient but still not as good as used cooking oil. A few people around here have converted their diesel cars into oil cars, and they love it. One guy was telling me that if you use a diesel car or truck, you can buy a $400 kit and convert it yourself without a lot of trouble.

$400 is pretty cheap for converting i'd say, its a shame most people don't follow his example.

[Shortpoet-GTD]

This article shows that it's been around for awhile now. (2004)
http://www.prattsinn...grease_car.html

[Germs]

Shortpoet-GTD, on 24 November 2011 - 04:51 AM, said:

This article shows that it's been around for awhile now. (2004)
http://www.prattsinn...grease_car.html

Oddly enough I've not actually heard of this, going more mainstream now though it seems.

[Shortpoet-GTD]

I heard about it on Planet Green (back when they first started, and really were interested in spreading
the green word-it's gone downhill ever since.)

Even ole Willie Nelson runs his tour buses on it, and promotes it to other drivers on the road when he stops-
(to stock up on ________I'll leave that to your imagination.)

http://money.cnn.com...elson/index.htm
From 2007, so he's been running on french fries for awhile now.

[sammilynn]

This is awesome :)

A great idea that actually looks like it was thought about, so it may actually succeed, and hopefully all goes well, and other places adopt it as well. :)