Postby PariaMan » May 9th, 2011, 4:08 pm
Ride on Troy Hadeed’s veggie oil-fuelled van
Published: 18 Mar 2010
Troy Hadeed got tired of the smoke emanating from the use of diesel. Hadeed, 30, who already owns a successful and environmentally-conscious business: Mystic Hemp, selling clothes and other products made of organic ingredients like hemp, has converted his SsangYong Musso pick-up truck’s diesel engine to run on a dual tank—one for diesel, one for vegetable oil. Painted boldly on the left fender are the words: “Powered by waste vegetable oil.” For the last five months, Hadeed has been driving around in his truck fuelled by used vegetable oils he collects from popcorn fryers at MovieTowne and Spalkers restaurant in Cascade. Carlton Savannah hotel in St Ann’s is soon to come on board.
Since the switch, Hadeed said there’s been no change in the vehicle’s performance or decrease in the 11 days’ worth of mileage he’d normally get from a diesel engine. When he drove the truck back onto the lot where he purchased it two years ago, the head mechanic was amazed by how quiet the Mercedes engine was. Instead of producing clouds of familiar sooty smoke, the SsangYong Musso—painted bright green to reflect the environmentally-conscious 1960s—emits no visible exhaust. Hadeed’s psychedelically-coloured truck is the calling card of his new company: Ecoimpact. In partnership with the Telecommunication Services of T&T’s (TSTT) Live Green, Live Clean campaign, Ecoimpact plans to facilitate and promote using recycled veggie oil as fuel as a way to manage the disposal of cooking oil and reduce carbon emissions in T&T, TSTT said in a statement.
TSTT said it has already committed to eco-friendly waste disposal by ensuring its internal waste—batteries, paper, oils and ink toner—is safely disposed of by accredited material recyclers in accordance with international standards. Hadeed commended TSTT for supporting Ecoimpact and others who want to ensure that T&T’s modernisation takes place through sustainable, green methods. The unsafe practices of cooking oil disposal threaten that balance, TSTT said. “There’s no one collecting used cooking oil, and the laws about cooking oil disposal are not enforced. So it’s either frozen and thrown away, or poured down the drain,” Hadeed explained. “And that’s an environmental hazard.” According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, a gallon of diesel produces 22 pounds of carbon dioxide (Co2) emissions. It’s widely accepted that carbon emissions are linked to global warming.
Vegetable oil, though, is a carbon-neutral fuel, Hadeed said. It emits only as much Co2 as it absorbed while growing in the field as plants. It’s a win-win in terms of improving T&T’s eco impact, he said. “When I get out of my vehicle, I smell popcorn.” Ecoimpact plans to campaign widely so that private companies like TSTT and government agencies like the Environmental Management Authority (EMA) can get on board with this eco-friendly project. According to TSTT, converting one’s engine for use veggie oils as fuel costs about $15,000. The conversion of Hadeed’s vehicle was done by Ryan Garcia’s United Auto and Performance Ltd, 149 Eastern Main Road, Barataria. “They do all the installations of any vehicle that I sell a conversion kit to,” Hadeed said. “They are the only ones locally who do this kind of work. Other mechanics saw it as a joke. They gave it a shot. They wanted to do it well because if it worked, it could bring in new business.”
Hadeed said he’d been studying biofuels for the last four years. His initial intention was to run his vehicle on biodiesel, which is a chemical process involving blending vegetable oil with methanol and “a catalyst called sodium hydroxide.” Hadeed realised he wouldn’t have the time or money to produce biodiesel. “I was tired of running on diesel and polluting the atmosphere, so I decided to make the change on my own. Hadeed he plans to place drums at restaurants and fast food outlets and arrange to empty those drums once monthly, for a minimal fee, and take it to a storage facility for recycling. Eventually, he wants to collect all waste vegetable oils in the country.
