biodiesel

Without any sort of approval from my girlfriend, I bought a 1984 diesel Mercedes-Benz through eBay. Two years later, the vehicle has provided me with nearly 10,000 miles of service on waste vegetable oil (WVO). The fuel may technically be free, but it has not come without a price. Here's how I converted my car, affectionately known as "Chance," to a veggie-oil roadster, and some of the hard-learned lessons I picked up along the way.

Were still in the honeymoon period with new fuel technologies like biodiesel. Theyre clean. Renewable. No more oil-covered seabirds in the news! I can drink out of the tailpipe of my hydrogen fuelcell car! Weve been so taken with their promise that weve neglected to think much about their inevitable downside: these fuels are manufactured, and unfettered manufacturing can be dirty.

Take a peak inside the Solix labs to see their oil-from-algae operation up close in our photo gallery and video â€Here it is!†Jim Sears says with a tour guide´s come-see enthusiasm.