Power Your Car with Fat

Aug. 16, 2005 — -- As gas prices skyrocket, some environmentally savvy consumers are turning to animal and vegetable fats to power their cars.

Animal and vegetable fats contain hydrocarbons like oil and can be converted to fuel to run a vehicle.

"Part of the chicken we use is simply the fat and it comes from a renderer," said Greg Hopkins of U.S. Biofuels, Inc. "They use every part of the chicken for something."

A school district in Georgia is using a mixture of chicken fat and diesel gas to power school buses.

A company in Missouri is taking leftover turkey parts from a neighboring processing plant and turning them into heating oil and gasoline.

"Anything that was once a living thing, plant life or animal, can become fuel," said P.J. Sampson of Renewable Environmental Solutions.

Vegetable oils can also be converted to fuel cars, but the costs of a gallon of vegetable oil at the supermarkets costs about $3.50, still more than gas at the pump.

But some thrifty consumers have found they can get vegetable oil for free.

"The most effective way to do it, which most of our customers are doing, is getting it at a restaurant," Justin Carven said.