Well I cannot wait for cub reporters bevvy and important to collect any good bits from the mainland...so I am gonna start posting interesting bits from dis island...here is my first one 8) from up the road in campbell river.
Carport Refinery
Paul Rudan/The Mirror
Warren van Ginneken checks out a sample of biodiesel he makes in his carport and uses in his diesel engine truck. Used water heater tanks (below) and other cleaning tanks are the main machinery needed to produce biodiesel. Warren van Ginneken and his wife Krista Hurton have started their own company, Grease Burner Bio-Fuels, to collect used cooking oil from restaurants to produce the fuel which they use themselves.
By Paul Rudan
Mirror Staff
Oct 28 2005
In the back of his carport Warren van Ginneken cooks up batches of a valuable concoction.
Each day the liquid is poured into old water heater tanks where it is "brewed," filtered, bottled and then greedily consumed...by an old Toyota Landcruiser.
"This is how we make biodiesel," says the 29-year-old with a grin.
For about a year now, van Ginneken and his commonlaw wife Krista Hurton, 29, have been making their own biodiesel to run their 1985 diesel truck.
"It has more than half a million kilometres and it runs great," he says Tuesday during a tour of their manufacturing area.
The couple aren't making their own fuel for profit. They're doing it to save money, to preserve the environment and to one day teach their two-year-old son there are viable and better alternatives to using gasoline.
"We're doing it for our child - the less people contributing to our environmental warfare, the better," says Hurton.
During the daytime Hurton goes to school where she's learning to become a health care office worker while van Ginneken is a sous chef at the Harbour Grill. When he leaves work, he takes home the old cooking oil from the deep fryer, as well as from other restaurants.
The used oil undergoes a cooking and cleaning process which is repeated several times until they are left with biodiesel which is biodegradable, clean-burning and cheap.
"Right now it takes about a week," says van Ginneken, who will update his home refinery to speed up the process. "Then we'll able to make about 100 litres in 12 hours."
Another by-product of the process is glycerine which is used to make soap. They hope to sell the glycerine but, for now, van Ginneken uses it to clean up the mess he makes during production.
Biodiesel can be used in any diesel engine and in oil-burning furnaces. The one drawback is it can eat away at rubberized fuel lines. This can be avoided though by using modern fuel lines which have different polymers and are used in most new vehicles.
Biodiesel is also different from the vegetable oil fuel. In the late 1800s, Rudolf Diesel developed his engine which used natural oil for fuel but was later replaced with petroleum-based diesel.
In the last few years, Slavko Dontchev of Campbell River redeveloped the process by developing a device to heat up the used and filtered cooking oil, which is then injected into the engine.
Biodiesel can be poured straight into the gas tank but the end result, of both products, is virtually the same: a cleaner burning, more efficient engine.
"When we first started using biodiesel, we had to replace the fuel filter every few months because so much gunk was cleaned out of the tank," says van Ginneken. "Now, I'm not sure when we'll have to replace it because it burns so clean. It works like a charm and the truck has never run so good."
The couple learned about biodiesel when they were living in Tofino. A friend started a bus which runs on biodiesel and then they started making it themselves after moving to Campbell River last November.
"Fuel is a necessity but it doesn't have to be nasty," says Hurton.
Carport Refinery
Paul Rudan/The Mirror
Warren van Ginneken checks out a sample of biodiesel he makes in his carport and uses in his diesel engine truck. Used water heater tanks (below) and other cleaning tanks are the main machinery needed to produce biodiesel. Warren van Ginneken and his wife Krista Hurton have started their own company, Grease Burner Bio-Fuels, to collect used cooking oil from restaurants to produce the fuel which they use themselves.
By Paul Rudan
Mirror Staff
Oct 28 2005
In the back of his carport Warren van Ginneken cooks up batches of a valuable concoction.
Each day the liquid is poured into old water heater tanks where it is "brewed," filtered, bottled and then greedily consumed...by an old Toyota Landcruiser.
"This is how we make biodiesel," says the 29-year-old with a grin.
For about a year now, van Ginneken and his commonlaw wife Krista Hurton, 29, have been making their own biodiesel to run their 1985 diesel truck.
"It has more than half a million kilometres and it runs great," he says Tuesday during a tour of their manufacturing area.
The couple aren't making their own fuel for profit. They're doing it to save money, to preserve the environment and to one day teach their two-year-old son there are viable and better alternatives to using gasoline.
"We're doing it for our child - the less people contributing to our environmental warfare, the better," says Hurton.
During the daytime Hurton goes to school where she's learning to become a health care office worker while van Ginneken is a sous chef at the Harbour Grill. When he leaves work, he takes home the old cooking oil from the deep fryer, as well as from other restaurants.
The used oil undergoes a cooking and cleaning process which is repeated several times until they are left with biodiesel which is biodegradable, clean-burning and cheap.
"Right now it takes about a week," says van Ginneken, who will update his home refinery to speed up the process. "Then we'll able to make about 100 litres in 12 hours."
Another by-product of the process is glycerine which is used to make soap. They hope to sell the glycerine but, for now, van Ginneken uses it to clean up the mess he makes during production.
Biodiesel can be used in any diesel engine and in oil-burning furnaces. The one drawback is it can eat away at rubberized fuel lines. This can be avoided though by using modern fuel lines which have different polymers and are used in most new vehicles.
Biodiesel is also different from the vegetable oil fuel. In the late 1800s, Rudolf Diesel developed his engine which used natural oil for fuel but was later replaced with petroleum-based diesel.
In the last few years, Slavko Dontchev of Campbell River redeveloped the process by developing a device to heat up the used and filtered cooking oil, which is then injected into the engine.
Biodiesel can be poured straight into the gas tank but the end result, of both products, is virtually the same: a cleaner burning, more efficient engine.
"When we first started using biodiesel, we had to replace the fuel filter every few months because so much gunk was cleaned out of the tank," says van Ginneken. "Now, I'm not sure when we'll have to replace it because it burns so clean. It works like a charm and the truck has never run so good."
The couple learned about biodiesel when they were living in Tofino. A friend started a bus which runs on biodiesel and then they started making it themselves after moving to Campbell River last November.
"Fuel is a necessity but it doesn't have to be nasty," says Hurton.