Although most people’s concept of biofuels are liquids derived from plant animal byproducts harvested specifically for that purpose (such as corn being refined into ethanol for usage as fuel) one of the largest sources of available fuel to many biofuel enthusiasts isn’t a specially designed biomass but something found in abundance in any major city – vegetable oil from fast food restaurants. Traditionally re-packaged and sent off for disposal or re-processing at the end of the day this oil base is a venerable treasure trove for many people to use in their cars or other energy generators with little actual conversion necessary to some cars to be able to use it directly.

While it’s true that crude vegetable oil collected from fast food restaurants must first be filtered in order to remove any impurities and debris that may be present in it after the cooking process this can easily be done at home through a basic filtration system to store both clean oil for usage in engines as well as pre-processed oil collected from local restaurants. The result is a readily available home fuel station that can be used either individually or distributed amongst a local community for use.

Unfortunately the sheer volume of demand for fuels means that this source of energy is not possible for all motorists to use and not all cars can easily process vegetable oil instead of refined petroleum. Still, with minor conversions to an existing diesel engine (especially older engines or those designed for higher-demanding power output) vehicles may be able to use pure vegetable oil for power without even needing ethanol additives such as that found in most biodiesel blends. This can help reduce the overall demand for petroleum based fuels as well as solve an ongoing issue of proper waste handling for old vegetable oil generated from restaurants in many areas.