'Veggie car'

MANILA, Philippines - Are you done with your cooking oil after using it for a delicious crispy fried chicken for dinner? Don’t throw it just yet as it can fuel your diesel-engine car. GMA News reporter John Consulta on Tuesday featured the vegetable oil-powered pick-up truck of Ricky Nuñez. Most vegetable oils have similar fuel properties to diesel fuel except that it is stickier and has lower oxidative stability. With the help of his auto mechanic friends in Lipa, Batangas, Nuñez installed an engine converter kit from United States to his car. This enables his truck’s engine to use the vegetable oil as fuel. According to Nuñez, the used cooking oil will be filtered first before funneling it into the car. "May konting modification lang sa pagdaloy ng mainit na tubig para sa mapainit ang mantika para magamit siyang fuel sa diesel engine (There were just a few modifications to the flow of warm water to heat up te oil and use it as fuel for the diesel engine)," Nunez said. "Ako’y pumayag na gamitin ang vehicle ko para maipakita rito sa Pilipinas na kaya nating magpaandar ng isang sasakyan na gawa ang waste vegetable oil (I'm offering my car to be showcased here in the Philippines so that other people would see that we could run vehicles using waste vegetable oil)," he added. Nuñez said a liter of used cooking oil can power his car from six to eight kilometers. Compared to the price of diesel that cost almost P50 a liter, Nuñez buys used cooking oil for P18.50 per liter, and sometimes for free. The report said converting the car into a “vegetarian" could cost around P25,000. But Isable Gammad, owner of an auto center, said the cost could further go down if surplus materials were used in the car’s conversion. But wait, there’s more! Instead of a nauseous fume, the ‘Veggie car’ emits a colorless smoke that smells like fried chicken. - GMANews.TV