Published: August 27, 2007 12:21 am      

SHELBY: Local entrepreneur brings use of bio-fuel to hometown

Vegetable oil is no longer reserved for cooking and greasing baking pans as evidenced by one of Medina’s own, 22-year-old Colin Huwyler, owner of Fossil Free Fuel.

About five years ago, Huwyler was going to college to study political science at the University of Buffalo. But knowing he’d be spending a lot of time on the road, Huwyler began looking for a car that could get as many miles to the gallon as possible.

“I was definitely going to be commuting to school and I wanted to get something that was fuel efficient and something as close to environmentally sustainable as possible,” Huwyler said.

For Huwyler, running the vehicle of his choice, a 1998 Volkswagen Jetta, on straight vegetable oil was the most viable option. The diesel engine could easily be converted to run on vegetable oil and the choice was not only economically savvy but also environmentally friendly.

“It can be done with any diesel car,” Huwyler said. “I purchased a conversion kit from the Internet and that was the first kind of endeavor into it.”

Though Huwyler had problems with his conversion, he found that others had some of the same problems. One person he eventually made a connection with because of the problems they were both experiencing is his business partner David Rosenstraus of New Jersey.

After trying to solve various issues both men were having, the duo started a business of their own in Buffalo doing conversions. Huwyler and Rosenstraus then moved the operation to Allentown, Pa.

“At that point, we had an opportunity to get a shop down there in Allentown just temporarily, because we hadn’t anticipated being able to do the business full-time and, at the moment, there was a number of conversions he had lined up,” Huwyler said. “I was just going down to help him out just so he could get caught back up. It began to snowball — as we’d finish them off more people would come in. It seemed to make sense to make that a more permanent solution.”

After about a year and a half with a full shop open in Allentown, the pair moved again. This time to Pittsburgh.

“I had done a conversion here a long time ago, when we first started the business and always had interest from folks in this area,” Huwyler said.

But the interest in bio-fuel isn’t merely in Pennsylvania. Huwyler recently converted a 2003 Volkswagen Jetta for Scott and Meaghan Green of Shelby.

“We knew we wanted to do the conversion and it has to be diesel to convert it,” Scott said. “Originally the diesel engine was meant to be a vegetable engine, it was meant to run off of vegetable oil.”

The local couple decided to do the conversion because of the impact on the environment and because of their dependency on oil, Scott said.

“(Meaghan’s) always been an environmentalist and that’s really her passion. She works for the Department of Environmental Conservation. This was something she had wanted to do and we went with it,” he said.

By using vegetable oil, the carbon that is put into the atmosphere is newer than that of oils made from fossil fuels, according to Huwyler, which have been absent from the air for millions of years. Using filtered fryer grease or new vegetable oil from a store puts a carbon neutral substance back into the environment in a life-cycle of sorts.

“This is a way to recycle a waste but it also reduces the amount of carbon from fossil fuels,” Meaghan said. “I think we should be setting a good example, and I have a long commute to work so I wanted to find a way to reduce emissions.”

The conversion the Green’s had Huwyler do on their vehicle cost approximately $3,000. They also purchased a filtration system so they could filter used oil from local restaurants at home to fill the car.

“We’ve only had it now for maybe a couple months. Truthfully to recoup what we paid for it, it’s going to take a couple years,” Scott said. ”It costs us little to no money now. We’ll be driving for free once we’ve paid off the conversion and the tank that does the filtering.”

The way the Green’s Jetta drives hasn’t changed a bit. Much of that is due to the way the system has been built. The car starts up on diesel fuel and once the vegetable oil is hot enough a sensor switches the fuel source. When the car is turned off, the entire engine is flushed with diesel fuel once again so the next time it comes to life it’s not starting on cold vegetable oil, according to Huwyler.

“We do need to start thinking about (alternative fuel) because carbon dioxide emissions are going to start effecting all of us,” Meaghan said. “Because I work in the environmental field, I really wanted to do something to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide that I’m putting into the environment personally.”

Contact reporter Miranda Vagg at 798-1400, ext. 2225.