how to win at "i'm so punk..."

November 6, 2005 5:25 PM

Piebald's van runs on used cooking oil. Mostly thanks to this guy. (flash in second link)
posted by es_de_bah (23 comments total)

And?
posted by wilful at 5:45 PM on November 6, 2005

Running cars on vegetable oil reached semi-epidemic proportions recently in the UK. The government issued scary print ads about what was in store for anyone caught. They had people patrolling the roads with vegetable oil detection kits.
posted by fire&wings at 5:49 PM on November 6, 2005

Piebald is awesome (as a band -- this is good, but doesn't quite reach the level of awesome). Hopefully this will help them continue to be solvent on tour.
posted by aaronetc at 5:50 PM on November 6, 2005

Vegetable oil detection kits?
posted by odinsdream at 5:56 PM on November 6, 2005

biodiesel is worth a mention.
posted by mathowie at 5:57 PM on November 6, 2005

Vegetable oil detection kits?

Their equipment could pinpoint a french fry at 400 yards! And the Vanagon, being such a large vehicle, was a piece of cake.

...
OK, I guess I'm done here.
posted by boo_radley at 5:59 PM on November 6, 2005

Check out Combat Wombat - a way excellent Australian hip hop crew who have travelled the country numerous times over with their vegetable oil converted diesel van - which also doubles as a fully equipped mobile studio running off solar panels on the van's roof. ( They used this to record their recent album Unsound System )
posted by jeanpoole at 6:25 PM on November 6, 2005

es_de_bah, this isn't new, however, I Love it!

I dug pretty deeply into the second link, and it was really good. Anyone with some basic mechanical skills can do this. Is it actually a viable new resource for the masses? No. Is it great witnessing regular guys with day-jobs trying to revolutionize fuel and the way it is used? Hell yea!

Pretty much anything that will burn in an aerosol state will run those high compression diesel engines.

I'm still trying to figure out how to bio-engineer bugs that eat radioactive waste. Nuclear might be the way to go in the future, if we can eliminate or re-use the excess waste.
posted by snsranch at 6:32 PM on November 6, 2005

"I'm still trying to figure out how to bio-engineer bugs that eat radioactive waste."

Ewww, why do I not think that's a good idea?


posted by mr_crash_davis at 6:38 PM on November 6, 2005

mr_crash_davis! I knew that was coming. Since we have organisms that help clean up oil spills, I thought it logical to have some that clean up nuclear waste products. Perhaps Mothra is our friend after all.
posted by snsranch at 6:44 PM on November 6, 2005

come crash on my shore!
posted by willns at 7:10 PM on November 6, 2005

Cool.
posted by VanRoosta at 7:23 PM on November 6, 2005

Fire&wings, what's the basis for UK's crackdown on grease powered cars? Safety? Pollution? The dangers of having the roads smelling like yesterday's tempura?

No, really, this is new to me. With the gas not grease site, this seems like a brilliant pollution minimizing solution. What am I missing?
posted by phyrewerx at 7:44 PM on November 6, 2005

I meant grease not gas. Stupid sleep depravation.
posted by phyrewerx at 7:45 PM on November 6, 2005

They had people patrolling the roads with vegetable oil detection kits.

It's to support the BBC BP.
posted by dhartung at 7:47 PM on November 6, 2005

phyrewerx: the UK (and many other countries) place large taxes on fuel. Vegetable oil is not taxed, though. So people are basically (for right or wrong) technically skirting british law by using vegetable oil for fuel, and not paying fuel tax.
posted by RustyBrooks at 7:52 PM on November 6, 2005

Necessity is the mother of invention. It is necessary to not pay taxes whenever possible, especially if they are there to support the BP or any other corporation.
posted by snsranch at 8:22 PM on November 6, 2005

neat, some kids at my school did this recently.
posted by timory at 10:12 PM on November 6, 2005

Everyone should do this.
posted by interrobang at 11:01 PM on November 6, 2005

live in boulder, we've been running some buses off biodiesel for some time, at least at the university, after some students experimented with this a few years back...
posted by crabcakes at 11:38 PM on November 6, 2005

snsranch, sorry if you're aware, but fuel taxes don't fund BP. BP's just another oil company these days. the government attempt to justify high taxes on fuel as enviromentally sound, but basically they tax us on fuel because they can.
posted by flameproof at 5:28 AM on November 7, 2005

Repeat from other biodiesel thread:
B.I.O. Tour
Since June of 2003, we have logged over 25,000 miles criss-crossing the US in our vegetable oil-powered bus, with a solar-powered sound system, teaching people how to use vegetable oil for fuel, hosting workshops, distributing information and organizing in support of clean, renewable, peaceful energy.

I went to Burning Man '98 in an converted (normal petrol) school bus in a group that included one of the guys now running B.I.O. Tour.
posted by i_cola at 5:54 AM on November 7, 2005

Maybe if their new cd didn't suck I'd go see them.
posted by ackeber at 8:22 AM on November 7, 2005