Bio diesel smells like fries, and it's free

When Independence resident Beth Smith starts the engine to either of her two Mercedes, she’s not hungry.

“How could I be?” Smith said. “Heck, I don’t pay anything for gas.”

The same cannot be said for others on the road, who must stomach not only a gas price of nearly $4 a gallon but a waft of the fumes from Smith’s veggie oil-fueled vehicles.

“The only drawback is the smell that comes from the tailpipe,” Smith said. “It smells exactly like french fries.”

What better way to leave woes over gasoline in the dust?

Five years ago, one of her sons introduced Smith to the concept of converting diesel engines to run on used cooking oil.

“He came home from vo-tech with this article and said, ‘Mom, this is really cool, you’ve got to hear this,’” Smith said.

The story told of a man named Charlie Anderson who founded Golden Fuel Systems, an outfit based in Springfield, Mo., which makes systems that are one answer to the alternative fuel outcry.

Smith’s son convinced her to try out the system on his diesel-powered pickup.

Today, Smith swears by Golden Fuel Systems; two of her cars are already outfitted, and a truck will soon follow.

She admits the early investment is hefty. The system minus installation (Smith’s husband is a diesel mechanic) can run between $1,000 and $2,500 depending on the vehicle, and that doesn’t include the filters. In addition to a large filter at home, each of Smith’s cars is equipped with three filters to limit impurities that could gunk the engine.

“I drive 50 miles to and from work every day,” said Smith, whose mileage per gallon in one of her Mercedes diesel engines (41 miles per gallon) is the same with vegetable oil. But the vegetable oil is free. “Trust me, I recouped that cost pretty quickly.”

Smith does not pay for the vegetable oil she uses but is up front with business owners before taking it home, where it undergoes a lengthy filtering process before it’s poured into the fuel tank. It’s a messy job not well-suited for those opposed to changing their own oil.

“If I see a barrel full of grease out back of a restaurant, I’m not going to just assume it’s waste and take it,” Smith said. “That’s stealing.”

Smith said the stealing of used vegetable oil in Independence has reached crisis level in the last six months.

“We usually get about 50 gallons a week,” Smith said. “Last week we came home with 10.”

Larry Comer, who owns Hi Boy Drive In in Independence, said he didn’t used to have a problem with people taking used vegetable oil from one of his many area locations. He used to have to pay $120 per year plus $30 for its disposal once a month. But that was before National by-Products in Kansas City, Kan., offered him an attractive bargain: They would pay 7 cents a pound for his used vegetable oil.

“I have so many people who come in to try and make a deal,” Comer said. Smith recently approached him about acquiring his used vegetable oil. “But I have to tell them I’m under contract.”

Then there are those who don’t ask; they just take.

“I think it’s a crime when you steal anything off somebody’s lot,” said Comer, who has noticed an increase in vegetable oil theft, particularly at his U.S. 24 location. According to Comer, 7 cents a pound is minimal in light of the soaring price tag for vegetable oil; whereas he once paid $16 for a 5-gallon jug, he now pays $36.

Smith said she’s not sure whether the surge in stealing is due to more vegetable oil-powered vehicles on the roadways or the price bio-diesel companies will pay for it.

Normal diesel engines can operate on bio-diesel, which is chemically altered vegetable oil. It is among the leaders in the push for an alternative fuel source. Smith hasn’t completely converted to vegetable oil just yet.

In the wintertime, she starts and stops her vehicles on diesel because the oil has a tendency to coagulate in colder weather.

Still, she only needs one tank of diesel every six months. But Smith is not just about cutting costs; it’s about cutting emissions.

“Burning used vegetable oil has little to no negative impact on the environment,” said Smith, who grows much of her own produce and doesn’t use any chemicals such as pesticides or herbicides.