I'd like a car with those fries

Published in The Post-Star (D1)
8/17/06

Jenny Pronto's car smells like french fries. Or chicken tenders. Or -- is that the smell of shrimp wafting from her exhaust pipe?

Could be, depending on what foods folks ordered from the fryers at Mr. Bill's ice cream and fast-food stand on any given day this summer.

Pronto has been picking up all of the used fry oil from Mr. Bill's -- a summer-only casual eatery on Route 9 that features carhop service and a giant statue of a guy holding a hamburger -- for almost three years.

She filters the oil and stores it in 5-gallon jugs in her parents' garage, pouring it as needed into a tank in the trunk of her 22-year-old diesel-engine Mercedes.

"It actually runs better on vegetable oil," she said. "It's smoother, you can feel the difference."

Pronto, 21, will drive to Ithaca in a few weeks to begin her junior year at Cornell University. She's majoring in -- ready? -- "environmental engineering and the science of natural and environmental systems, with a focus on sustainable development."

In other words, there's a reason she doesn't just fill up at the gas pump like the rest of us.

"I use vegetable oil as fuel because it has no sulfur emissions, which can cause acid rain, and it releases the same amount of carbon dioxide that would naturally be released if the plants were decomposing," she explained.

Her interest in environmental issues is more than academic, it's also faith-based. She is a member of the Adirondack Friends Meeting in South Glens Falls.

"As a Quaker, I've always learned that we've been given God's earth to take care of," she said. "Reducing our footprint, or impact on the earth, is part of that."

She bought her car from someone who had already rigged up the necessary tank and hoses to convert the diesel engine to a veggie-oil engine, but at over 200,000 miles, it may be nearing the end of its life. She has already decided that the next car she buys will be another diesel.

"Any diesel car can be converted to run on vegetable oil," she said. "You can bring it to a mechanic, or even buy a kit online."

The engine must run on diesel as it is warming up, and right before it shuts off, but as soon as she flips a switch near the dash, the vegetable oil flows to the engine. It gets roughly the same mileage as gasoline.

Bill Smith, owner of Mr. Bill's, was more than happy to grant Pronto's request when she stopped by one day to ask if he had any used vegetable oil, since he had been paying about $150 a month for a recycler to pick it up.

"I think it's great," he said. "It's good for the both of us. She's a college student, so it helps her save money on fuel."

He isn't ready to switch his own vehicle to veggie power anytime soon, he said, but Pronto's example has gotten him thinking.

"You know, the way prices are going, who knows?" he said. "I may buy a company truck that's a diesel next time, or power my electricity from a diesel generator, so I could try it, too."

Pronto is proud of her unusual car, as her bumper stickers indicate, but she's kept a sense of humor about it as well. She still laughs about the time she had to call a tow truck because she forgot to let the engine warm up fully before switching the fuel supply to oil.

"The guy who came was like -- what's the matter, didya get a fry stuck in there?" she said.