Yellow Brand Biodiesel update #2

 

 

November, 2001: This biodiesel fuel production is beginning to be kind of a big deal - at least, from our local point of view! Tom is sometimes having a hard time keeping up with the demand for his fuel. Here's a big reason why:

Below is an AP article about it that came out in mid-October. Tom is getting calls now from ALL OVER THE COUNTRY! I have received two reprints from friends who saw it and knew I would want to know. Here's one version below. Tom tells me that some of the versions he's been sent are even longer, and one even has his picture in full color. I think it's a terrible picture myself, but hey, I'm entitled, being his mother*! This one is from the Cape Cod News: I reproduce the text below the image.

Greasy Home Brew Nets Cleaner Fuel

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

CAPE COD NEWS, MONDAY, OCTOBER 15,2001

 

ASHFIELD: The slick brown goo that Tom Leue concocts in his backyard chemistry lab may not be as appetizing as the stir-fry and french fries it once cooked. But Leue gets plenty of mileage out of the used restaurant oil. With a dash of wood alcohol and a sprinkle of lye, Leue brews the grease-trap sludge into biodiesel, an environmentally friendly fuel that powers diesel engines and heats homes.

 

TOM LEUE: "Biodiesel can be produced from soybean oil or recycled vegetable oil from restaurants. While its use doesn't cut down on smog-causing nitrogen oxide, it produces none of the carbon monoxide or small particles created by burning traditional petroleum-based diesel fuel. "

 

"Petroleum is awful for the environment," Leue said. "It causes global warming and acid rain. It's just not compatible with living things."

 

Leue's twoVolkswagen Jettas with diesel engines run on the stuff, so do his tractor and pickup. His home heating furnace burns it with no problems, he says.

 

And there's no shortage of the raw material he needs to make the fuel. Once a week, Leue hops in his Ford pickup truck powered by a tankful of his Yellow Brand Premium Biodiesel and makes his rounds at restaurants. "Chinese restaurants are my favorites," he says. "They usually use very clean oil."

 

With the bright yellow tank riding in the pickup's flatbed, Leue sucks up to 200 gallons of grease that the restaurants save for him. Back at his makeshift lab - a converted maple sugaring house coated with the dull odor of cooking oil - Leue pumps the sludge into a holding tank and begins transforming the waste into fuel.

 

Sap pans, a 24-gallon hot water heater and a huge soup cauldron Leue got from a school cafeteria are about all the hardware he needs. "The oil is pumped through a series of filters to remove bits of food and other sediment that could junk up the fuel.

The addition of lye and wood alcohol separates useless glycerin from what becomes the fuel. After settling overnight, the brew is ready.

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