Biodiesel, yes!

This morning we had breakfast with our friends Nathan and Joy. Nathan is an avid homebrewer, and as he fired up the 200,000 BTU burners on his brewing rack in his driveway, he explained the brewing process. Now, I enjoy beer, but he really piqued my interest when he started talking about transesterification, a process to convert vegetable oil into diesel fuel. I've known about biodiesel, but this morning's conversation brought it to the fore. Biodiesel is truly awesome. It closes the loop: farmers drive tractors to grow our food, we eat the food, and now the leftovers can become fuel for the farmers' tractors! Blam.

One of the neat things about biodiesel is that you can make it yourself. Unfortunately, that's pretty much your only option if you want to use biodiesel now and you live in Pittsburgh. Industrial-scale processes are coming along, however. One of the players is a group called Capital Technologies, which has close ties with Carnegie Mellon here in Pittsburgh, and is even opening a biodiesel plant on good ole Neville Island!

So next question: can I get a diesel minivan?

Update: Diesel vehicles are slowly making a comeback, and you can indeed buy biofuel in Pittsburgh (thanks to Kevin at CTI for the tip)! Feed back to Chad Whitacre.