Alligator Fat Could Fill Your Gas Tank and Fuel Renewable Resource Investment in the South

Now if only Puppies and kittens were as fuel worthy...

Ya what could possibly go wrong with using animals to supply fuel for millions of people.

gman45,

We already use animals to fuel billions of people. The portion of the critters not fit to fuel humans is usually thrown away. If some of that scrap can be used to create fuel for vehicles, then that mass does not get wasted and we have a way to put gas in our cars. Its a double win.

People need protein. I guess its better then wasting the fat like their doing (oh how we are great wasters).

Hopefully we get off combustible fuels and move to more humane renewable sometime, but one must remember many areas of the world are still VERY far behind in cultural development and don't have any animal rights, some don't even appear to have human rights.

Now if only we could use human fat (say from liposuction or whatever,) the U.S. would be back on top of the fuel market. :P

15 million pounds of alligator fat would probably only render down to a few million gallons of biodiesel. By contrast, the US uses around 400 million gallons of gasoline per day. (see http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/us-gas-addiction.htm at about 50% crude-to-gasoline conversion rate)

Therefore, while we should not be wasting resources, alligator derived biofuel will likely be a tiny niche market, perhaps best used on-site at some of the production facilities to operate their own fleet vehicles, generators, etc.

One also wonders what kinds of resources go into raising alligators. They are voracious predators and presumably eat quite a lot. That food needs to be produced somehow, and those animals are probably grain fed. I would imagine that alligators are primarily raised for their skin, trophies, novelty food, etc. Therefore luxury sales revenues probably more than make up for the inefficiencies of raising them. However, there are far more efficient ways to get protein, for example, like raising actual chickens or even exotic sources like locusts. If one wants biofuel then algae and bacteria have far higher yields per unit of space and feedstock.

Read the article people. The fat is going in the garbage right now as we currently have no use for it. They will not breed more alligators to make fuel, but use what would be wasted with normal processing for our food sources. Gator meat is quite popular in the south. They do the same thing with chicken fat already. Yes, it will be a niche product, but something is better than nothing. Waste not, want not.

Well, if we can recycle fat people like in Soylent Green.......

now we're killing animals for fuel? this is really getting ridiculous.

@ drinny26

no we are not killing animals for fuel. we are killing them to eat them, use their skin, ect. the left over fat is thrown away. instead of tossing it in the landfill we can use it for biofuel.

if u have never had gator, ur missing a treat. its tender and juicy and oh so goood! tastes similar to rattlesnake, more flavor than frog.

Ideas like this are certainly intriguing, but this isn't going to solve our problems. We need to think about things that can be widespread and sustain the entire human population's energy needs, alligator fat just isn't going to cut it. Not that I think we should stunt any form of scientific inquiry or progression, but we have very dire issues that need to be resolved, and pet projects like this need to take a back seat.

As aarontco mentioned, the amount of biodiesel derived from alligator fat is a tiny percentage of what we use. It might be worth while for alligator farmers to switch to diesel for all of their vehicles, but for the rest of us, this means nothing.

Sustain our needs? Until when?

Walk more, eat less meat, have fewer children, don't support those who have too many.

Coming next: Soylent Diesel.

It is not for nothing that the chemists involved are Indian. In India they already use dried cow dung for cooking fires because they have messed up their environment so badly that there is no other alternative. Maybe these guys are thinking ahead.

A quick estimate suggests that in India 75,000,000 pounds of fat per year could be extracted from the dead bodies of the people who die there each year. That should run quite a few rajas' Mercedes.

When's the last time you saw a fat Indian? I'm not sure I ever have.

I suggest companies like Joule Unlimited, that produces diesel from water, solar and CO2. It's much cleaner and less land to make it happen. Personally I believe slaughtering animals is going a bit to far.

So... Who actually read the article & posted a relevant response?

This is equivalent to turning orange peels into batteries. Yet, people are still complaining.

@beefy you're a idiot. and probably a fat one too.

@drinny
how is he an idiot hes right, were not killing extra gators for fat, just using the waste from the allready pre-established process
@aarontco, the majority are not farm fed/born gators, but wild gators, so no impact there

most of the people on this thread have missed the article and only read the title and threads so let me recap....
allready established process of harvesting wild and some farmered gators, the fat bi-product is currently being thrown away, instead of throwing away, process into fuel, no large impact but enough to become profitable, and replace some fuel, multiple small projects to replace fuel, becomes onebig project to replace oil/gas/coal etc etc.

@drinny26

You sound like a dumb @sshole.

@landerneck, some of us have, I see no reason to go this route. The amount of biodeisel made is insignificant, it will neither impact production or offset usage to any significant amount. What it ends up being is a nice idea and that all.

If it turns a profit, we'll see animals start becoming more profitable for their fat than for their meat. Then we'll start breeding animals for fuel INSTEAD of for meat. If you though breeding animals for food was bad...

To everyone that commented on things like "Now we are killing animals for fuel" or similar topics:
While yes it would be nice to move away from such a wasteful society, or even not kill animals for anything, reality is this.
Ask yourself: How many miles to the gallon do you get? Is there anything you can do to reduce your needs and trash? Why don't you ride a bus? Do you throw left overs away? Do you turn lights off when not needed?
While some of you can answer yes to these and many other topics of conservation, most cannot. The biggest thing that bugs me is when someone driving an SUV has save the .... bumper sticker. It is great that you want to care about the world, but change one habit, take an extra minute to think about what you are doing, and perhaps you can actually make a difference.
We as humans use animals for lots of things, not all good, but things will not change unless you do more than post a complaint on a message board. Carpool, ride the bus, eat left overs, etc... Not only is it green, it will save you money.

@ drinny

LMFAO super intelligent remark you made there. i ask that you, mr genius, explain to me why i am an idiot. i would like to know so i may be able to correct my way of thinking. i read the whole article. what did i miss?

@gman
obviously you didn't read my entire comment either, one small solution by itself will not work....agreed.....but many small innovative solutions combined make one large very effective solution, if you dismiss 50 of these types of small solutions you probably just dismissed a way to reduce foriegn consumption of oil and fossil fuels by 25-50%. A significant change. your missing the forest through the tree.

lanredneck, Which 50 types of small solutions are we talking about? or are you saying ones that haven't been thought of yet?
Seriously I am not one to be a conservationist, I don't have a green mandate. I do believe we should and eventually will get off fossil fuels, when the technology has matured.
This use of alligator fat as diesel will lead to what suddenmischief said, people will start growing and selling alligators for their fat and not their food content. This is the natural progression that people take and IMHO we shouldn't go down that road.

@ gman and suddenmischief
i didn't want to get into it because its a very laborious topic to get into and i don't have all the esact knowledge and terms but i do understand the general concept of it, but the whole "they will start breeding anmials/gators to make fuel and only for fuel" is flawed due to the economics of it all. As was stated gators are notorious eaters, and the facilities to handle gators as well as the trained personnel are kinda of expensive thats why you don't see it on tables around america. This will work because it is a by product, a discard waste to be recycled, the meat will still be way more valuable than the fat. gators will still be breed/harvested for the meat. This also includes the converison rate of fat to fuel. which i am sure is not close to a 1lbs to 1 gallon ration, probably not even 10-1. which at current rates is less than a dollar per lbs, most beef cuts and some pork will still be higher priced than that, so the gator meat will still be more profitable. in conclusion the belief that this will become so economical that this will be the main reason for growing animals/gators is false.

also @gman
the 50 number was random and arbitrary, the point is many small incosequential projects become one big highly effective solution to fossil fuel dependencies. No silver bullets no cure-alls. I'm not a "greenie" either but i do see good opportunities to find the proverabial "forest through the tree"