Big Green Bus takes cross country tour

SAN JOSE Change your fuel. Change your world.

Journeying in an old green school bus modified to run on vegetable oil, 12 Dartmouth College alumni are promoting that message with a 10,000-mile cross-country tour.

Aptly named The Big Green Bus, the project, launched in Hanover, N.H., is visiting more than 50 cities, educating people about the uses of alternative energy sources. Along the way, the group is stopping at different restaurants to ask: Can we have your vats of used cooking oil to fuel our bus?

We usually have to ask the question twice, said Menlo Park native and recent Dartmouth graduate Brian Hendrickson. At first, they think it is a joke when they see a bunch of kids who sometimes have not showered in a couple days.

According to Hendrickson, the ideal oil is warm, a light coffee color, and clear, with nothing floating in it.

Since it is too thick to bepoured down drains, restaurant owners usually must pay to get rid of their used cooking oil. But once filtered and heated, it can be used in lieu of diesel fuel.

At any given stop, the group expects to receive around 40 gallons of this oil, an amount that will take them close to 400 miles, according to Hendrickson. Though the used vegetable oil gets only 5 percent better mileage than diesel fuel, the burning process is much cleaner, emitting much less carbon dioxide into the air.

I have learned how simple it is to do, said Michael Saladik, a recent Dartmouth math graduate who helps organize the groups finances. If you have a vehicle that runs on diesel fuel, just go on the Internet, and you can convert your vehicle within a weekend.

Hendrickson, the groups designated engineer, converted the bus engine by collecting instructions he found on the Web.

The concept of using vegetable oil to run vehicles dates back to the late 19th century, when Rudolf Diesel developed the first engine to run on peanut oil. But with the rise of the petroleum industry and cheap fossil fuel, the use of vegetable oil as a reusable source of energy was soon forgotten.

A vehicle of the new millennium, not only is the Big Green Bus equipped with computers, a flat-screen TV, and a DVD player, the group is supported by more than 15 donor corporations, including Cypress Semiconductors of San Jose, where the bus made a stop Monday. Cypress contributed a solar panel mounted on the roof of the bus that charges the team’s electronics, and Whole Foods Markets has given the group gift cards for food.

Without business, we could not have the resources to live out our ethics, said The Big Green Bus official representative, Andrew Zabel.

The team has also attracted the attention of the media, publicized in dozens of outlets, including MTV News. Nowadays, if you really want to make a change, you have to go mainstream, said Hendrickson.

These 12 young activists are definitely thinking big. They are on a mission to change the world, one veggie-powered bus at a time.

By Allison Louie, Staff Writer
Courtesy of San Mateo County Times