Fried foods are one of the triumphs of mankind. In a miraculous transformation, cooks use a hot liquid to turn raw foods into dry, crispy, delicious morsels. However, all too often, fried foods end up leaving us with a slew of negative emotions. There is the obvious guilt that comes with the inevitable gluttonous consumption of fried food, but beyond that there is also confusion over what to do with all that leftover fat. Sure, oil can be reused a number of times, but once the fat starts smoking and the fries start tasting bad, something has to be done.
Disposing of used oil can prove to be more difficult than it seems. In individual households, people can freeze their used cooking oil and throw it away, but food service establishments generally do too much frying to simply throw out the oil and instead pay to have it carted away. Neither of these solutions does much to alleviate post-frying guilt.
However, luckily for anybody who has felt angst over what to do with leftover cooking oil, there is an alternative to conventional disposal methods. Once a fat has exited the delicious stage of its life, there is no reason for it to be cast upon the junk heap. Through a scientific miracle called transesterification, very clever people can split the now-icky fat molecules into methyl esters and glycerin. The latter is a key ingredient in soap making; the former is more commonly known as biodiesel.
There are plenty of reasons to be excited about fuel made from old frying oil. It's free, it burns cleaner than conventional diesel, and it can be used in any diesel engine with a little modification. Even unmodified diesel engines can use a blend of biodiesel and conventional diesel in a 20/80 ratio.
Beyond its environmental and practical benefits, biodiesel offers ethical benefits as well. For one, it is an American-made product, so it reduces the United States' dependence on foreign oil. It's also completely renewable since it doesn't contain any fossil fuels.
Furthermore, biodiesel is an ecologically sound technology because it is made of something that would have been taking up space in a landfill. Any mother will tell you that it's a sin to waste food, so why not give our unsavory leftovers to our automobiles?
Because of all of biodiesel's benefits, many people are warming up to the idea of putting fuel that used to be fat into their cars. Perhaps the most famous effort to introduce biodiesel to the masses is Willie Nelson Biodiesel, a company started by country star and environmental activist Willie Nelson in 2005.
Nelson's company is an impressive effort to get biodiesel on the market for national consumption, but there are also a number of people attempting to get the good stuff in their cars on a more local level. In fact, some of our peers at MIT have started an organization to make biodiesel from their residence halls' used frying oil and use it in university vehicles. Instead of having the university pay $1.10 per gallon to have the used oil carted away, these students are trying to turn it into an ecologically sound fuel.
There is even a biodiesel cooperative here in Madison. The Prairiefire Biofuels Cooperative, located at 1894 E. Washington Ave., takes donated used oil and turns it into biodiesel for sale to the public. These and other efforts make it seem that biodiesel is the fuel of the future.
However, there are some problems with biodiesel. According to the Department of Energy, the limited supply of used frying oil puts a cap on the production of biodiesel of 100 million gallons a year. Additionally, pure biodiesel can be harmful to unmodified engines. These disadvantages do not change the fact that biodiesel is an opportunity to turn a waste product into a fuel.
It is fortunate that science has come up with a way to take some of the guilt out of fried foods. Although biodiesel can do nothing for our waistlines, it can certainly help our consciences shed a few pounds.
Jason Engelhart is a junior majoring in economics and history. Does biodiesel rev your engine? Let Jason know. E-mail him at [email protected].
