 Eddie Walsh, biodiesel driver |
Walsh admits that when he started out as a biodiesel convert, he was something of a local maverick—and an uncertain one at that. "Nobody I knew was doing it then—it was very experimental," he says. In college, Walsh and his classmates converted a diesel vehicle to biodiesel, using homegrown sunflower oil and discarded cooking grease from the campus dining hall for fuel. After relocating to Gardiner to work as a trail designer for the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference, which oversees protection of state parks and preserves like Minnewaska, Walsh decided it was not enough for him to walk the walk of an environmental steward at work, but time to start to drive the drive, so to speak, in his personal life with a more environmentally friendly car.
Walsh prepared to convert to biodiesel by "doing research from where the class left off." Most valuable, he says, was reading the bible of biodiesel—From the Fryer to the Fuel Tank: The Complete Guide to Using Vegetable Oil as an Alternative Fuel (Tickell Productions, 2000) by Josh Tickell, a filmmaker and writer who, having grown up in the shadow of a Louisiana oil refinery and lost several relatives to petroleum-related cancers, began promoting biodiesel nationally via his own Veggie Van in 1997. Walsh also explored diesel-to-biodiesel conversion instructions available online through firms like GreaseL.com and GreaseCar.com. "The biggest thing I've learned is that converting to biodiesel is totally doable for anybody," he says. "I paid less attention to the mechanics in class—I was more interested in testing the different oils—but it was still easy."
Walsh completed his biodiesel conversion himself, spending two days on the job, and using about $600 in parts from the local Auto Zone, but he advises other converters to buy a $700 kit (available online), which can be installed yourself or by a mechanic. ("Most people who are trying to do this are like me—idealists without much money," he says.) Walsh filters the discarded cooking oil he collects twice a week from a New Paltz restaurant with a device that "looks like a big sock or stocking," lasts for about 6,000 miles, and can be purchased online for about $7.
Two cars and two conversions (his first biodiesel car was replaced by an '82 Volkswagen Rabbit), a bumper sticker that reads "Powered by Biodiesel," and 30,000 to 40,000 biodiesel-fueled miles later, Walsh's switch to alternative fuel has more than paid for itself. He gets 35 to 40 miles per gallon on a long trip and has driving and filling-up experiences that are both "sweeter-smelling," and "relatively guilt-free."
And in a little over two years, Walsh no longer feels alone in making mileage out of vegetable oil. "Now I know five or six people in Ulster County alone who are doing it," he says. Local examples of biodiesel user-activists include Polly and Jay Armour of Four Winds organic farm and CSA in Gardiner, who have converted their Mercedes sedan to biodiesel; Sloop Clearwater captain Scott Cann, who is working toward running the boat on 20 percent biodiesel; a group of northern Ulster County small business owners, organized by Jim Kricker of Rondout Woodworking, that imports biodiesel from World Biodiesel in Massachusetts to run their trucks and buses; and the Hudson Valley Biodiesel Co-op, an informal group of individuals and small businesses interested in making biodiesel readily available that meets monthly and maintains a public online discussion forum.
Biodiesel usage is growing at a surprising rate, says Skip Hauth, CEO of BioEconomy Development Corporation, a Grand Island, New York-based company that provides demonstrations, advice, and facilitating for large-scale biodiesel conversions and biodiesel manufacturing. "A lot of what's going on in biodiesel in the US is patterned after what's going on in Europe, where major industrial-scale manufacturing of biodiesel has progressed," says Hauth. Today, for instance, 50 percent of Austrian and German diesel vehicles, including passenger cars, are running on biodiesel; and use of 100 percent pure biodiesel (as opposed to biodiesel diluted with various percentages of regular diesel to keep it from gelling into glycerine) in 2003 was 50 million gallons compared with 60 million gallons of petroleum diesel used.
According to Hauth, whose company is looking to buy, blend, and deliver biodiesel to sites throughout the Northeast, including the Hudson Valley, biodiesel usage and manufacturing rates in the US look promising, largely thanks to federal tax incentives and federal and state-run programs that call for increased biodiesel usage. Already, he says, the Department of Defense uses biodiesel in its nonmilitary vehicles, and highway departments and school bus fleets have been targeted to switch to biodiesel.
"In 2003 we used 50 million gallons of B100 [100 percent biodiesel] and 60 billion gallons of petroleum diesel," Hauth says. "New federal tax incentives mean more people will be blending and delivering biodiesel to gas stations and fleets to satisfy the consuming public. They also represent opportunities for businesses to manufacturer and distribute biodiesel, as well as grow soybeans or other crops to make it. These tax incentives are a way to bring biodiesel's prices down on a par with petroleum diesel, so that more consumers will be willing to buy biodiesel and the demand for it will grow. These incentives are important—we need people to see that it's very good for the environment to displace fossil fuels."
Back in college, Eddie Walsh conducted experiments comparing biodiesel and fossil fuel emissions. "Biodiesel still emits some bad things"—namely, carbon oxide, carbon dioxide, and hydrocarbons, as well as soot—"but it's nothing compared to regular diesel," he says. "I remember attaching a piece of loose leaf to the exhaust pipe and revving up the engine. With regular diesel, it blacked up pretty quickly, but with biodiesel, it just turned yellow after awhile. There's a huge difference."