Battleground Earth Sneak Peek: Evolution Biodiesel

Michael Graham Richard
Transportation / Cars
July 30, 2008

One of the benefits of biodiesel is that if you have access to a good source of feedstock, you can make your own. So if you have access to waste vegetable oil (from restaurants, say) and have a diesel vehicle, you can have your very own fuel refinery in your garage.

That's pretty much what Tommy Lee and Ludacris did in Battleground Earth, when they stopped in Dallas to learn how to turn used frying oil into biodiesel. With help from Evolution Biodiesel, they went head-to-head in the "Fast Fuel" Challenge, where they turned waste vegetable oil from fast food restaurants into biodiesel. Who won the biofuel smackdown? Tune in to find out...Evolution Biodiesel makes a whole range of biodiesel processors, from relatively small units with 24 gallons capacity to mammoths able to produce up to 460 gallons per day. Price for these processors range from $2.7K to about $8K, but if you divide those numbers by how many gallons of fuel you burn a year and how much that costs you, they are probably more affordable than you think. Of course, it's not for everybody. You need the DIY spirit. But if you've got it, few things in the automotive world are more rewarding than making your own fuel.