Tied in with the last story, here’s an article from the Lompoc (CA) Record about a restaurant owner who is saving over $500 a month in fuel costs by using recycled peanut oil in his Mercedes. According to the story – Gary Mead, who communtes about an hour each way from his home to his business, adds a 16-percent mixture of turpentine, gasoline, kerosene and cetane to the peanut oil, which helps thin out the fryer oil and bring the auto ignition temperature of the biodiesel low enough to explode in the engine instead of catching fire.
He says the additives to his free peanut oil cost him about 67 cents per gallon.