Costco Connection - April 2007

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A small company is part
of the push to run cars
on vegetable oil

Oil change

By Will Fifield

VEGETABLE OIL—the stuff in your kitchen cupboard—is not only great for frying tacos, it’s a clean, readily available source of automotive fuel. Costco members Edward Beggs, of Salmon Arm, British Columbia, and Craig Reece, of Berkeley, California, say that it’s the most environmentally friendly and economically viable alternative fuel available today.

Their Web-based company, Neoteric Fuels, which does businesses as PlantDrive ( www.plant drive.com), provides the expertise, products and professional mechanical assistance necessary to help individuals and companies modify their diesel-powered vehicles to run on vegetable oil. Beggs and Reece say that a growing number of motorists are buying diesel-powered cars and modifying them to run on vegetable oil because it addresses environmental, geopolitical and economic concerns.

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MONICA LEE

Costco member Craig Reece helps people modify their diesel-powered cars to run on regular vegetable oil.

A grassroots approach

Using vegetable oil as fuel is not a new idea. The first diesel engines, developed by Dr. Rudolph Diesel in Germany in the late 19th century, ran on vegetable oil. But the oil industry developed an inexpensive petroleum-based diesel fuel, which became the standard fuel for diesel engines.

Beggs, who founded PlantDrive in 1999, became interested in vegetable oil as an alternative fuel source as a university student studying environmental and sustainability issues. He says his education coupled with a background in soybean farming (a popular source of vegetable oil) near Detroit—aka “Motor City”—gave him an early interest in all the topics surrounding his business.

In 2003, Beggs offered to sell half-ownership of the business to Reece, who had converted his own car to run on vegetable oil in 2001. After modifying his car, Reece had been handling engine conversions for Bay Area motorists using PlantDrive products, and he jumped at the chance.

Now the pair hope that what has been a grassroots movement will expand. Each year, more motorists frustrated with wildly fluctuating gas prices find their way to PlantDrive’s Web site.

Name: Neoteric Biofuels (doing business as PlantDrive)

Owners: Edward Beggs and Craig Reece

Members at:

Beggs: Kelowna, BC

Reece: Richmond, CA

Employees: Four

Products/services: Sells kits to convert diesel-powered cars and trucks to run on vegetable oil and offers support during the process of converting, or refers clients to mechanics who can perform the conversion.

Contact:

Neoteric Biofuels Inc.

B.A.G. 9000, Suite 305

90 Trans-Canada Highway NE Salmon Arm, BC V1E 1S3 Canada

Edward Beggs:

(250) 833-0275; fax 1-866-835-1031

Craig Reece:

(510) 841-3606;

craigreece@plantdrive.com

Web site:

www.plantdrive.com

Comments about Costco:

“We often recommend Costco as a great place to buy new vegetable oil. I’ve filled up more than once at Costco, and the look on fellow Costco shoppers’ faces as I fill up, once with a 1999 Mercedes E300, is priceless.”

—Craig Reece

The nuts and bolts

Costco member Erik Elbek, of Santa Barbara, California, modified his diesel-powered Volkswagen

Jetta in 2005 after reading a news story about oil companies posting record quarterly profits. “At the time diesel fuel was at $3.50 per gallon. The largest container of soy oil at Costco, a 35.6-pound tub, was cheaper than buying diesel,” he says. “I was just tired of getting ripped off by the gasoline industry.”

Elbek learned the nuts and bolts about modifying his diesel engine to run on vegetable oil by studying information on PlantDrive’s Web site. He says it cost about $700 to $800 in parts to modify his Jetta. Because he is mechanically inclined, he handled the modifications himself. Elbek and his wife were so pleased with their converted Jetta that they modified their Mercedes Benz turbo diesel about six

months later.

Reece says that PlantDrive has helped car owners modify hundreds of diesel engines—and that these vegetable-oil-powered engines consistently deliver about the same economy and power as engines that use standard diesel fuel. However, he says, modified engines tend to last longer because oil is a better lubricant than traditional diesel fuel.

Like the Elbeks, many PlantDrive customers collect waste vegetable oil from restaurants for free. After they filter it, they can recycle this waste product as fuel in their modified cars.