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Now that you've converted your vehicle to run on waste vegetable oil (WVO), here's what you need to know about selecting the oil and where to get it free.

There is no shortage of dirty cooking grease in the United States. From Florida to Alaska, people are sucking up deep-fried food like it was... food. But if running my car on deep-fryer oil has taught me anything, it's that this stuff is the last thing I would consider putting in my own body. It is my dream to show up at McDonald’s someday asking for WVO and be turned down because of a shortage due to lack of interest. In the meantime, as long as people are happy to consume food fresh out of this thick, rotten, saturated-fat concentrate, I'll make the best of it. For now, at least, there is plenty to go around. But there are some important oil-selection rules that will help you keep your vehicle running smoothly on WVO.

Read the Label
The truth is, not all deep-fryer byproducts are created equal. I never ask McDonald’s for their cooking grease because... it's too dirty to put in my car. Yes, people just ate food cooked in it, but I guess I'm a little more selective with my auto's arteries than they are with their children's. (No more "Happy" Meals!). Meticulous scrutiny of collected oil quality is essential to the longevity of a WVO-fueled car.

I remember once I thought I had hit the jackpot—70 gallons of oil for the taking! Do you know how far that will take a car that gets 50 miles to the gallon? I usually have to visit three different restaurants to gather 70 gallons of oil. Sure, the original carton the oil came in listed "partially hydrogenated" on its ingredient list, but a biodiesel alchemist friend guessed he could "remove the hydrogenation" and give it back to me as straight vegetable oil before chemically manufacturing it into biodiesel like he usually does.

Two thousand miles later, you should have seen my mechanic's baffled manly face! Shaking his head as if he'd encountered a UFO; "I've never seen anything like it, Tonya," he said. "Your car wouldn't start because there were seven gallons of pure sludge in the fuel tank. I mean, this stuff was disgusting."

Seven gallons of pure sludge in my fuel tank. It was that day I learned the first lesson of meticulous grease collection: always ask to read the ingredients on the original container your oil came in. And if it says “hydrogenated” or even “partially hydrogenated,” leave it alone. The easy collection is not worth the repair.

Inspect the Oil
The second lesson of meticulous grease collection is: always inspect the oil to determine frequency of replacement. Now that we know we aren't collecting any hydrogenated oil, we must grab a sample of that oil (one pint will do) and take a good look at it. If it is golden yellow, looking almost identical to virgin oil purchased off store shelves, then you've hit gold, baby! It has probably been changed after two days of deep frying. If the oil is brown, it's been used longer. And sometimes, it is thick, cloudy and has particles floating throughout. This stuff has probably been cooking up a heart attack for 10 days or even a week and again, I don't consider it worth the repair later.

Let It Settle
The third lesson of meticulous oil collection is: let it settle. I prefer to collect my oil in the actual containers it came in—usually opaque five-gallon cubies. That way I can allow my sample to heat in the sunshine for a week, then visually note its clarity. Did water settle to the top? Did fat settle in the middle? How much black food crud is gelling on the bottom? If I want to make sure there is no water, I can take a cup of that oil and heat it over the stove. Water will pop and fizz off of a preheated griddle and the oil will warm and spread out.

I have had very few incidences of water in my collected oil, personally. But the separation test guarantees me that I have a good batch—no water, a small amount of fat, if any, and just a little crud. Plus, the act of letting the oil settle in see-through cubies before hand-filtering it into one's tank offers the option of using all but the bottom, dirty layers.

Go Vegetarian
People joke, "Doesn't your car smell like French fries now?" And my honest response is, “No, it smells like tempura.” But really, when did people start thinking gasoline smelled normal anyway?

To get the cleanest oil possible, follow the fourth and final lesson of meticulous grease collection: collect from vegetarian Asian restaurants. This is last on my list of criteria because sometimes it's hard to find and, although it matters, buffalo-wing oil will still do a fine job of powering your ‘mobile.

If you can collect from a vegetarian restaurant, though, their oil is much lighter and generally changed more frequently. Its even better if you can collect from an ethnic restaurant (Ethiopian, Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Mediterranean, etc.). That generally will increase the quality of your oil and decrease the effort it takes to get it ready to go into your tank. Plus, I prefer to smell vegan samosas to petro-diesel when standing behind my car any day. The longer you are in the scene, the more comfortable you will get at asking restaurants that don't share a first language with you for their oil.

Thinner Is Better
You will from time to time also have the option of collecting different types of oil. The truth is, all these oils have powered my car and can power yours, so I won’t include this as a collection lesson, per se. But if given a choice, which I usually am not, I'd choose the thinnest oil to begin with.

Thick oil is fine for food (depending on it you eat such stuff or not), but in order to be fuel, it must combust, and the thinner the oil is, the lower the combustion point. Plus, thin oil won't gel and clog up your car's arteries. Here is a list of common oils in order of thinnest to thickest: grape seed, canola, rice, soy, peanut and olive.

Get Going
You can begin selecting your oil-collection sites and building relationships even before you purchase or convert your car to run on WVO. Get a feel for it. Be grateful. Be clean. Be asked back.

After you've selected your cleanest oil, you'll need to get it ready to go into the tank. (More on that in a future piece.) So much to learn and so many cool people to learn from. Becoming a member of the alternative-fuel society has far more benefits to reap than the imagined effort exerted. You are about to become one of the doers and find out who is in your family.

Read Part 3: How to Filter the Oil
Read Part 4: Better Oil Filtering
Read Part 5: Risks and Rewards
Read Part 1: Converting Your Car

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[See a complete list of writing by Tonya Kay on EcoHearth.com or visit her Clean and Green Everyday blog. – Ed.]

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