veggie+oil

As the world watches the price of crude oil fluctuate in response to the conflict in Iraq, chemists and advocates for alternative energy technologies are training their sights on the grease used to cook French fries. Unlike petroleum-based products, vegetable oils are biodegradable, nontoxic, and are derived from a renewable resource. When used as a fuel, they produce nearly 100 per cent less greenhouse gases than petroleum-based diesel fuels, and when used as motor oil they improve gas mileage by more than 3 per cent and reduce smog-forming nitrogen oxide emissions by 75%. Despite such benefits, however, vegetable-based oil currently comprise less than one per cent of the North American Market Share. One of the road blocks to the market appeal of vegetable-based lubricants s their unreliability at both high and low temperatures, when it gets to hot it oxidizes and breaks apart and when it gets to cold they solid fly. Back to Contents
 * Vegetable Oil- The New Fuel? **