My name is William Wrentmore, I drive a car and truck that run on biodiesel - a non-toxic, renewable and cleaner burning fuel made from vegetable oil. Biodiesel is a direct replacement for petroleum diesel and will run in any unmodified diesel engine. Biodiesel may also be used in most diesel appliances. The biodiesel I use is made with recycled waste vegetable oil from food service use that would have otherwise gone into landfills, been dumped illegally into storm drains or fed to livestock. It can be blended in any proportion with petroleum diesel, the most popular blend being "B20" (20% biodiesel), available at some pumps around the nation today. Veggie Avenger vehicles use "B100" (100% biodiesel).

We need to drop the association between diesel cars and trucks and an ugly, stinking, black cloud. Biodiesel smells yummy, that's a fact. And while vehicles, engines, and driving habits vary, here are some numbers about emissions:

[From the National Renewable Energy Laboratory document "Biodiesel Handling and Use Guidelines". Available here: http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy06osti/39451.pdf]

78.3% reduction in greenhouse gases
55.4% reduction of particulate emissions (black sooty cloud)
56.3% reduction of hydrocarbons
80-90% reduction of mutagenicity (cancer-causing agents)
100% reduction of sulfurs (a major component of acid rain. This reduction also allows for the use of catalytic converters in the exhaust system to further reduce emissions)
There is a +5.8% increase in NOX emissions (smog and ozone forming) but this too can be reduced with the addition of an affordable catalytic converter.

There are other vehicles in Veggie Avenger's growing fleet that run on Straight Vegetable Oil (SVO). Depending on the vehicle this choice may be a viable option but it is more maintenance intensive and is still quite experimental. If you have the gusto and are attracted by free fuel for your car, the added novelty of driving on what your lunch was cooked in then this may be for you! It takes the average afternoon to adapt a car or truck to use vegetable oil as its fuel source and there are many kits available to do so - you can find a few of them on the links page. The modification of a 1982 Jetta using a GreaseCar kit is fully documented on the SVO Jetta page for your reference.

I am not the only one doing this; there are thousands like me all over the world, people who know more about green power and have been doing it for a lot longer too. If I can help it there will be many, many more in the near future. Hopefully you too. That's what I'm counting on anyway.

Fear not! Some of the things you will see on this site may seem a little scary, as well as messy. They may frighten you away from thinking about biofuel and or driving a biofueled vehicle. Please rest assured: you do not need to modify your car to run on biodiesel, you do not need to make your own biodiesel and in some cases you do not even need to harvest your own vegetable oil from grease dumps if you choose to run SVO. In every state there are commercial pumps selling biodiesel (see the links page) and in some places there are co-ops making it. In some markets you can even have a distributor deliver it to your home, as I do. It is safe, biodegradable, non-toxic and stable. For those of you who are interested in SVO there are also Vegetable Oil co-ops where people pool together resources and create the infrastructure needed to make the whole adventure more convenient. What I found myself while running my car on SVO was that once I developed a system - my own rhythm of handling my energy needs - it was much easier and I didn't miss the gas station at all. I actually look forward to the "chore" and I am pretty new to the whole thing.

As it is said "your mileage may vary" so read on, look at the pictures and video, follow the links ... find what is best for you and go with it. Buying biodiesel at the pump is a bit more expensive, agreed, but that Jetta TDI is going to get ~44 MPG on biodiesel if you drive conscientiously. That is right up with the gasoline/electric hybrids MPG but it is with renewable energy and the new car costs less. Funny that.