McDonalds Owner Converts Cars to Run on Veggie Oil
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 03.15.06
From the "we couldn't make this stuff up" file: A man in Mississippi, Robert Tomey, recently converted his two cars to run on vegetable oil. Using systems he bought from Greasecar, an online provider of veggie fuel systems, his Ford pickup and VW Beetle now emit a pleasant, french-fry-like odor and require just a bit of diesel to get them going. The irony: he owns four McDonalds franchises; thus, his supply of grease is nearly unlimited. "I throw away 10,000 gallons of grease every year from all my locations," Tomey said. "I have more than I can use." It's sure nice to see him putting some of that grease to good use (he thinks he could run a small fleet of 20-30 cars on the waste grease from his four locations), but, while McDonalds the corporation has made strides in social and environmental responsibility of late, they are far from perfect. We could go round and round about this one: "McDonalds is a large, un-sustainable, dirty corporation. Period." vs. "McDonalds is a large corporation that isn't going anywhere; might as well make the best of it and begin to close the loop. Congratulations to this man for starting to make a difference." We're leaning toward the latter. ::MSN via ::Jalopnik
Way behind the curve. Last September, an owner of 5 Wendy's in MA bought a $65G new Merc E-Class TDI and installed a Grease Car system right off the lot. He's been driving an ancient Merc with a kit for years and decided to go top shelf. If this MCD guy is smart, he'll get an Econoheat Omni boiler for his house. Only house legal boiler that can run WVO, crank case oil, transmission oil, up to 90W.
Good to hear this.
It's my understanding that McDonald's in general, as a corporation and not as independent franchisees, prohibits giving their french fry grease away. The word is that they fear someone will reverse-engineer their secret flavor additive. Before McDonald's left the eco-centric town I live in, one couldn't even BUY their waste!
"The word is that they fear someone will reverse-engineer their secret flavor additive."
Sounds like a good espionage tale, but it's probably not the real reason why they prohibited the sale of their grease.
After all, if someone wanted to reverse-engineer something from McDo, they could just buy the actual food and bring it to their lab.
Jeez... think about it, if he think he can power 5 cars per restaurant, its not unreasonable to hope that he can power delivery and sanitation trucks per restaurant, is it? If McDs get their act together, they could save on transportation costs, refill their own supply and disposal trucks on site, and score some LEED points in the process!
Oh my God, I remember when I first heard about the greasecar a couple of years ago. I almost fell out of my chair. The guy was driving across the country, stopping at fast food joints for fuel. Uhhh... I'll take a burger, fries and ummm... fill 'er up. That's got to be the coolest alternative energy invention this decade.
MCD and most chains do not allow their waste to get out to the public due to liability. Cradle-to-grave regulations. So if they gave you their grease and you spilled a bunch all over the road, caused an accident, MCD would be named in the suit and they would almost certainly lose.
This guy is an independent franchisee, as is the Wendy's guy, so they use their own grease and run their own risk. I bet that many of these chains will ultimately hook up with the many biodiesel plants that are "cropping" up. ;) Probably end up getting a cut and making a few bucks rather than paying to have it hauled off. I get all my grease from a few local restaurants and a college, more than enough.
That's just creepy, I just had a dream a couple of nights ago about discovering that McDonald's had a biodiesel gas pump next to it's restaurant*. Though I suppose it's not like it was a way out there thought on my subconscious' part.
*not that there is really any food value in the things they serve...
GREASE GUARDIAN is available to remove grease and fat from kitchen wastewater for recycling. www.greaseguardian.com We also supply products which convert oil into biodiesel. Tel: 028 302 66616