by Blair Goldstein
It's a simple recipe: Mix 10 gallons of vegetable oil with 10 gallons of diesel fuel.
Bobby Tabor has been feeding the unusual mixture to his 1987 cream-colored Mercedes Benz for almost a week. It fuels his car on the 60-mile commute between his home in Appomattox and his car technician job at MB Euro Service on Boonsboro Road in Lynchburg.
There's just one problem, though - the smell.
"I don't notice any difference in the power or performance of the car," Tabor said. "You do get an odor out of the tailpipe, and it smells just like it does outside of a McDonald's. It's that charcoaled grill odor."
Mark Barker, owner of MB Euro Service, said he didn't know about Bob's experiment when he pulled into work Monday, but he smelled the change.
"When Bobby comes to work we all get hungry," Barker said. "We have to make a breakfast run."
Tabor said he has been talking to his brother, who works in the heating and air conditioning business, for almost five years about powering a car with vegetable oil. About three weeks ago, they started their experiment.
They get used vegetable oil for free from friends working at local restaurants. Tabor said the free oil is the only way it is economical for him to use vegetable oil in his car.
"You're looking at spending $20 to $25 a week (on fuel) instead of $40 to $45," Tabor said. "You put $20 in your pocket."
Vegetable oil can only be used as fuel in some diesel engines. However, Tabor said he did not have to modify his car at all. In fact, Tabor said his car would run on pure vegetable oil, as long as the temperature of the liquid remains above 160 degrees. The high temperature keeps the liquid thin and ensures that the oil will not congeal. Tabor said he keeps his fuel thin by diluting the vegetable oil with diesel fuel.
While it is unusual for a car to be driving the highway on vegetable oil, it is part of a growing product line of biofuels. Biofuels are fuels made from recently living organisms such as potatoes, sugar cane and wheat. In an effort to encourage the production of alternative fuels, Congress is considering a bill that would extend tax incentives for the production of biodiesel, a fuel made largely from soybeans. The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality estimates that there are about 15 biodiesel suppliers in the state that serve the more than 500 commercial fleets nationwide that use biodiesel.
Environmental and economic concerns top the reasons people are turning to biofuel. While Tabor said he thinks about both, his curiosity is the primary reason he experiments with vegetable oil.
"The car that I'm driving has 451,000 miles on it," Tabor said. "It probably rides better than some of the other cars on the road."