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Ernest Griesel Drives His Diesel Bus on Grease
Ernest Griesel -- yes, that is his birth name -- drives around in a
diesel bus whose diesel engine he has converted to run on grease from
restaurants. It burns well and clean. The exhaust smells like French
fries. He shares easy-to-follow conversion instructions.
by Sterling
D. Allan and Mary-Sue
Halliburton
Pure Energy Systems News
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Fill 'er up with grease
Lohetta and Ernest Griesel
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PROVO, UTAH USA -- If you don't mind the smell of
French fries coming from your exhaust pipe, and you don't mind collecting and
straining restaurant grease instead of pumping fuel, burning grease in your
diesel engine is for you. Not only is it pocket-book free, but it is
nearly emission-free. Vegetable oil has a different chemical composition,
not giving off the fumes that diesel does when it burns.
Ernest and Lohetta Griesel have been running their bus on grease since November
of last year. Their transportation is also their housing -- a bus that they have
converted for this purpose.
Though endowed with an ironically suitable last name, the Griesels have another
kind of conversion in mind as they travel from place to place. They are
called "Grandma" and "Grandpa" among the Rainbow gatherings
and rock concerts they accompany as they migrate from area to area throughout
the United States. Mingling non-judgmentally among Pagans and Wiccans,
they serve as a sort of Christian Red Cross in an environment that is sometimes
less than civilized. Since 2001, they have been offering food, clothing,
and inspiration to homeless youths across the U.S. in their nomadic
outreach. They converted one school bus into a roving industrial kitchen,
and another into a mobile home.
Converting a School Bus to a Kitchen
Converting a School Bus to a Motor Home
"We've never had so little, and we've never been
so happy," he says.
Ernest describes the conversion process of how he modified his bus' diesel
engine to run on grease. Given that Rudolph Diesel designed his engine in the
1890s to run on vegetable-sourced oil in order to give farmers a financial
break, its ironic that modern diesel engines have to be converted to use this
bio-fuel. It is simple enough to tackle for anyone who is even half-way
mechanically inclined.
The conversion consists of installing a separate chamber to hold the grease,
then running a length of coiled copper tubing through it. The closed tubing
heats the grease by feeding hot radiator fluid from the vehicle's cooling system
through the bio-fuel. Once it gets above 180 degrees Fahrenheit, Griesel pulls
off the side of the road and manually turns a stop-cock-like switch. This
enables the engine to run on the pre-heated grease, rather than on the petroleum
diesel fuel from the gas tank. It's really that simple.
"I was a little nervous when I first ran the engine on grease, but it
didn't miss a beat; and it has run extremely well," he said.
Of course mounting the grease chamber will take some creativity, and caution so
as to avoid a fire hazard, but it is something that most do-it-yourselfers could
handle with relative ease.
Click for enlargement, from http://christiantribes.org/grease.htm
Ernest Griesel's photo essay showing conversion steps
The only expensive component is a marine diesel
filter, which can be removed for periodic cleaning. If an electronic control
were added to enable the switching from one tank to the other, pulling over to
turn the switch manually would not be required.
There is one other requirement that must be carried out before putting this
vegetable oil into the vehicle. The grease must be strained to remove the
fried-food residues which would rapidly clog the engine.
The grease needs to be above 80 degrees Fahrenheit when it is strained. Griesel
uses ten separated layers of cloth. "That is not a very pleasant
process," he says. Perhaps once this concept catches on more widely, this
process can be automated, and "griesel" can be made available at low
cost where it is in demand.
Canadian Discovery Channel reported recently that this is already being done
commercially in California. In British Columbia, where one town is operating
fleets of vehicles on this vegetable fuel, a few individuals are planning to set
up a straining operation in order to avoid having to import the cleaned product.
Griesel says that most restaurants are more than happy to give you their
grease. They usually have to pay to have it hauled off.
"I prefer Chinese Restaurants," Griesel said. "They change
the grease more frequently, so it is not as dirty."
The Griesels certainly are not the first to run a diesel engine on grease. As
more people catch on, perhaps there will be no longer be any such thing as
discarded grease. Instead, it will enter the market as a commodity of value, to
be recycled as an inexpensive alternative to planet-depleting fossil fuels.
With solutions such as the Griesels offer, a world of peaceful coexistence with
nature is not just a hope of hippies.
Griesel's Welcome Sign
# # #
SOURCES
The above story was composed from notes
taken from an in-person interview with Ernest Griesel as well as material
available on his website: http://christiantribes.org
Used
vegetable oil can be recycled to run a diesel engine Put a little sunflower oil
in your tank - This article explains that a modern process has been
developed to crack the molecule in vegetable oil to make it smaller, and easier
to burn in an engine. (Kelowna Daily Courier; Canada)
Dr. RUDOLF CHRISTIAN KARL
DIESEL (1858-1913) - The original vision of Dr. Rudolph Diesel was put aside
following his death in 1913 due to a perceived threat to the coal industry.
NB:
References to fossil fuel reflect a popular concept which owes much to a
completely unproven theory concocted in the eighteenth century i.e. that
petroleum comes from biological life forms that died long ago. In contrast, the
theory of abiotic
generation of oil deep in the earths mantle has been rigorously tested
and is virtually proven. But the exhaustive research by Russian scientists is
unknown in the west.
See: Stalin
And Abiotic Oil
Even if this theory is recognized as true and we are not running out of oil, the
imperative to reduce reliance on the combustion engine remains due to the
problems of pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
See also
Page composed by Sterling
D. Allan March 8, 2005
Last updated July 16, 2005
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