If You Can Bake A Cake, You Can Make Biodiesel

If You Can Bake A Cake, You Can Make Biodiesel

We have this wonderful old book, Fortunes in Formulas, that has recipes for making anything in your garage or basement, from insecticides to soaps. It is a North American tradition- the hardy, capable do-it-your-selfer who can make anything and survive anywhere. Biodiesel is attracting a lot of these types- why pay retail for fuel when you can cook it up in your garage? From the CSM: In his two-car garage, Kevin Newman is pouring used French fry oil from local restaurants into a pair of General Electric household water heaters - his version of the giant petroleum cracking towers found at an oil company refinery. He deftly moves hoses around, scrubs the impurities from the oil, performs chemical tests, and, voilà, a week later, he is filling-up his pickup truck with biodiesel. He figures his home refinery saves him and his business, which has six trucks, about $1.75 a gallon. "If you can bake a cake, you can make biodiesel," says Mr. Newman. We are not certain about this, but then we cannot bake a cake. Nonetheless we expect a lot of exploding garages and gummed up dead diesels along the side of the road. ::Christian Science Monitor