Boston drivers: Fill-up at ten cents per gallon
Converted: This tank, in the trunk of a converted green grease car, holds waste vegetable oil. (Photo: Ben Falk, from the Green Grease Monkey website.)
by Mark Baard
As gas prices pass four bucks per gallon, green grease has never looked so good.
And with more entrepreneurs entering the Boston biodiesel and waste vegetable oil market, prices for the stuff are plummeting.
“The grease wars have begun in earnest,” Green Grease Monkey Patrick Keaney told me in an email this week.
The Boston Globe’s Robert Gavin today reports that premium is already way over four bucks, “while diesel hit a whopping $4.72 a gallon in Massachusetts.”
But if you own a car converted to run on waste vegetable oil (WVO), you can fill your tank (the plastic one in your trunk, that is), for as little as ten cents per gallon.
“I can’t keep the stuff on site,” Keaney said of his own, filtered, WVO product. “It’s crazy.”
Keaney is selling WVO, which he gathers from local restaurant kitchens, for $1.50 per gallon.
Now New Hampshire companies are coming to Boston, “offering $0.10/gal. for
grease!” said Keaney. “And some guy on Craigslist is offering $0.20.”
If you already drive a diesel, the Green Greasemonkeys and Boston Biofuels are offering B100 (100 percent biodiesel) at a very reasonable $4.00 per gallon.
You can pour biodiesel straight into the tank of your diesel car — no conversion necessary.
Spring is a good time to take a chance on WVO or biodiesel. The warm weather means you won’t have too warm up your tank in the morning. (WVO and biodiesel can gel at low temperatures, one reason WVO cars have a switch that toggles between the veggie oil and diesel tanks.
You will also be helping the environment. WVO burns much cleaner than Petroleum diesel, for example.
The Green Grease Monkeys offer workshops on WVO conversion and biodiesel production regularly. You can occasionally find converted bangers on Craigslist.
Green Grease Monkeys will also be making appearances at events like the Green Roots Festival (details, below), this summer.
Bikes not Bombs
It’s the 1st annual GREEN ROOTS FESTIVAL
CELEBRATE SUSTAINABLE URBAN LIVINGSunday June 8
(Raindate June 22nd)
In the park in front of the Stoney Brook T station, Boylston St, Jamaica Plain
12:00 – 5:30 pmIt’s the first annual Green Roots Festival! Everyone is welcome to attend, share and learn about sustainable urban living and environmental issues. Come out to enjoy live music, food, speakers, workshops on environmental issues, information booths by environmental groups, and children’s activities. For Bike-A-Thon riders, this festival is an afterparty for your ride!
