Fueling up at home: Seattle resident teaches others how to produce biodiesel from used restaurant cooking oil

This is SCOOT's 500th Post!

By Dennis Wilken

The rising price of gas over the last couple of years hasn't bothered 51-year-old Lyle Rudensey one bit. Rudensey - who taught a Biodiesel Home Brew workshop last Saturday, Jan. 27, at the Greenwood Senior Center, 525 N. 85th St. - is an expert at making his own biodiesel fuel in his detached garage. He uses the fuel to keep his Volkswagen Jetta wagon running. And Rudensey gets between 40 and 48 miles to the gallon. He estimates the cost of his fuel at 65 cents per gallon. That's right.

In this day of $2.50 per gallon of gas, Rudensey makes his own for a quarter of the cost."I use used restaurant vegetable oil," Rudensey explained. He said his fuel comes primarily from Thai, Italian and Chinese restaurants. "My car smells like chop suey."

A positive changeRudensey said he was inspired by Dan Freeman, who started selling biodiesel fuel about six years ago under the moniker of Dr. Dan's Alternative Fuel Werks, in Ballard."Thousands of people are making their own fuel. We are all trying to learn to make it better. I talk to people doing this as far away as Australia," Rudensey said.

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