Robert Tomey, a McDonald's franchisee owner, has put his leftover french fry grease to a good use: fueling his car. His stores, he says, produce about 10,000 gallons of
excess oil each year and, after having a simple conversion performed on his car, he now has more than enough to get
wherever he's going. In fact, Tomey says that 20-30 cars could be powered by that amount of oil. The grease is
processed in a way similar to regular diesel fuel.
And Tomey is not the only one who does this. His conversion kit was purchased at Grease Car. Their conversion kits can cost up to approximately $2,000 and their emissions statistics are intended to provide potential consumers with an idea of how they'll be helping the environment if they convert a diesel car to run on vegetable oil. There seem to be many people who have successfully converted their cars, so it is possible we may see even more of them in the future, especially if McDonald's began to recommend this as an option to their franchisees, since it does seem like a great use for leftover grease.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-25-2006 @ 10:55AM
Susanna said...
This is quite common and we have a burgeoning veggie community here in the U.S. One of my cars is a "veggie cruiser." We did the conversion ourselves and we took a trip from SAcramento to Portland in our Veggie Mercedes carrying jugs of Din-Ho's grease. Pics of my car are over at vegieoil.com.
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3-25-2006 @ 9:25PM
Bruce Dearborn Walker said...
In England the price of gasoline is about four times what it is here (or at least it was a year ago), and so many people there converted to tax free vegetable oil that the government had to pass laws against it and send briefs out to the constabulary about how to detect it (large purchases of oil in the supermarkets; cars that smell like french fries).
In Britain they like their taxes.
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3-26-2006 @ 8:34AM
Kelley Ritchey said...
Now if he rigs one of those metal baskets to his grill, he'd have freshly cooked fries for the family. Transportation plus french fries!
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5-21-2006 @ 1:17AM
kris said...
I was able to meet Mr.Tomey and he pulled up in his Bug which was running of the stuff. Really neat. He also has other cars running on the stuff. He is saving a bunch a money on gas. Smart guy.
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