Thirsty of Biodiesel in Hollywood

July 16

What a great project. I am running with 100% biodiesel since Seattle and I am now in Hollywood. Mission accomplished for now. There is a biodiesel in Ventura, that’s where the Vans Warped Tour 06 is and here I am staying in the same house as the drummer of Sum 41.

It’s really nice to be here, especially that my car almost died in front of the house. It’s too hot right now and my car started over heating. Lucky me in my bad luck, when trying to fix my fan, a car pulled beside me and 2 mechanics started helping me. We borrowed tools from a shop not so far from where I was stuck and we tried to figure it out until the sun went down. We had no success on that day. Finally, a miracle, my car came back to life again and thirsty of biodiesel.

After all those adventures in the last few days, I finally got to go to Venice and hang out a bit. Surfing time and boogie board time. I had to give up surfing… ohhhh what a mission.

It’s already been a week and a half since I got here and I don’t want to leave. I love it here; rollerblading, the ocean front walk everyday, the waves... I feel like a little kid.

Before I leave the ocean, I’ll fill up again in Ventura and get ready to hit Vegas.

I love the beach!

Kate

Note: This post is part of Hilltrip.com’s Carbon Offset Program, which helped Kathleen Marcotte convert her car to run on biodiesel to travel south of Whistler and than back to Quebec. While traveling Kate wrote stories about her biodiesel experience and they are now available here on TerraTrip.org’s blog for everyone to read.

Biodiesel by the Bucket is Greasy

July 3

When I left Seattle, I went all the way up the peninsula to see the Olympic National Park with more than a tank of bio-diesel...tanks to Dr Dan. Lucky me, I was good until I got to California. Oregon was nice but there is not much to do there. Beaches and rock, that’s about it.

On the 101 south, somewhere in the centre of California, just before Berkeley, a beautiful little pump by herself was sitting there. I was able to fill up the tank with biodiesel with 70% less greenhouse gasses, 55% less particulate, 55% less hydrocarbon, 80-90% less mutogenicity and 100% less sulfur.

I finally got to San Francisco, just beside Berkeley, a hippies town! I had a really good time there. People are really mellow there. I found a special station of bio diesel that’s open 4-8pm Monday to Saturday. Those hippies really take life an easy way. What a nice life.

So after filling up, I drove strait to San Luis Obispo, the next stop with biodiesel. Lucky me, it was the 4th of July and right beside the biodiesel station, I found a little beach called Pirate Cove, where clothes are optional. It’s so rare in America to find that type of beaches that I decided to hang out there for a little while until the station that was just opening were ready with there pumps of biodiesel. They had just official opened their new pumps but I had to wait 2 hours because of a computer problem.

So I ended up buying my biodiesel by the bucket. I enjoyed a lot this town but when it’s time to go, it’s time to go. You should have seen me making a mess everywhere around me trying to keep the fuel in the funnel. I couldn’t even take a picture because I was to greasy.

This is how I found my fuel everywhere I go now:
http://afdcmap2.nrel.gov/locator/findpane.asp

Go look at it, it’s an amazing site!

Kate

Note: This post is part of Hilltrip.com’s Carbon Offset Program, which helped Kathleen Marcotte convert her car to run on biodiesel to travel south of Whistler and than back to Quebec. While traveling Kate wrote stories about her biodiesel experience and they are now available here on TerraTrip.org’s blog for everyone to read.

Finding Dr Dans Alternative Fuel Werks

July 2

First Biodiesel at the Pump

On my way to find bio-diesel, a little Jetta 03 pulled in front of me and with a big surprise a biodiesel sticker was on the trunk so I started following the guy around to ask his some questions and made it.

Ryan Daudestel is a student in Engineering that believes in a sustainable relationship with his car, the environment and the economy. So he gave me direction to go meet Dr Dan, someone who has biodiesel at the pump!

Dr Dan (Dan Freeman) is a man with a lot of knowledge. He explained to me in details why sediments and junk clog my fuel filter. Diesel is considered as high sulfur in it. So when you switch to biodiesel who is considered as ultra low sulfur diesel, it has a solvent effect so that’s why it’s moving out sediments out of my tank to my fuel filter.

Because of the high sulfur in diesel, there’s apparently a law stating that there will be no more diesel car made by 2007. The Environment Protection Agency says that the petrol diesel is not clean enough anymore for the environment. It causes acid rain! In 1977 the law decided no more lead gasoline will be produce because it caused brain damage…well now it’s I think it’s time for petrol diesel to move on to biodiesel.

Dan Freeman opened his alternative fuel werks 5 years ago. His bio-diesel fuel comes from a farmers’ owned coop in Ohio. They make it from Soya been oil. An average, Dan has 3,500 people coming to his garage to fill up there tank.

Dr Dan Alternative Fuel Werks
912 NW 50 Ballard, Washington
206-783-5782
http://www.fuelwerks.com/

Biodiesel is:
-Non toxic
-Biodegradable
-100% renewable and domestic
-Reduce greenhouse emission
-Support local farming communities

Kate

Note: This post is part of Hilltrip.com’s Carbon Offset Program, which helped Kathleen Marcotte convert her car to run on biodiesel to travel south of Whistler and than back to Quebec. While traveling Kate wrote stories about her biodiesel experience and they are now available here on TerraTrip.org’s blog for everyone to read.

Biodiesel Batch and Party Bash

June 2006 - Getting Ready

Biodiesel Batch & Party Bash

Just before I left whistler I made and other batch at Marie’s place, founder of Hilltrip. The complete process was a success but really interesting to smell. After we found the right amount of lye and methanol for 1 liter of waste oil, we where ready to mix it together. The oil started bubbling and getting thicker with and unreal stinky smell. Because I don’t have a blender to mix it properly for 30 min I had to stir it for and hour and a half by hand. It look like mayonnaise for a little bit and after, I put some in an empty bottle, so when it settle down you can see if this batch is a success and it’s easier to separate the oil you need for the car.

I feel that my biodiesel is thicker than regular diesel so I am doing a blend, I have 10 liters of biodiesel right now mixed with 40 liter of regular diesel and I am not sure yet but I think it make my car run longer, more kilometers with a full tank. Maybe it’s because the biodiesel is thicker!?! Well it’s just the beginning of the process…more is coming up!

EnviroFest

On June 10 we had a fundraiser at the Savage Beagle for the EnviroFest After Party supporting Hilltrip and its carbon offset program, witch is what is supporting my trip! The experience happened on the night of the full moon party. It was for me the last night I was able to enjoy all of my Whistler friends. Thanks to Marie who took a lot of her free time to organize an event full of surprise for everyone.

On this beautiful night full of stars in the sky I enjoyed the rhythm of DJ Phroh who made all of us groove to jungle music. You can enjoy the picture of the party on www.solartribe.ca. The energy of this special night was unforgettable for me. Thank for all of you who make it happen.

Sailing Trip

On the following week-end Nadine and Camas brought me to Gambier island to enjoy the weather on there sailboat. What an experience full of emotion. Being on the water give you that feeling of freedom where stress stay on the shore. We stopped at a catholic camp where we met some amazing staff who let me camp on there land after we realize we didn’t have enough bed for everyone on the boat!

Kate

Note: This post is part of Hilltrip.com’s Carbon Offset Program, which helped Kathleen Marcotte convert her car to run on biodiesel to travel south of Whistler and than back to Quebec. While traveling Kate wrote stories about her biodiesel experience and they are now available here on TerraTrip.org’s blog for everyone to read.