Sept. 19, 2007

What may (or may not) emit the smell of  French fries or an egg roll, would pass the Al Gore sustainability test and is sure to attract attention wherever it goes?

The county’s new “Veggie Van”—garishly green on the outside and figuratively green all over. Powered by used vegetable oil, the van is the county’s latest effort to use and promote technologies that don’t contribute to global warming and do help decrease the nation’s dependency on foreign oil.

“This one of those things that is so much fun to show off,” said County Executive Andy Spano. “This was an obsolete shuttle van that we would have gotten rid of at a public auction. And the old vegetable oil from the restaurant at the county’s Glen Island Park would have been thrown down the drain. But instead this van has been overhauled and the used oil recycled. And we have modified the inside of the van as well, so it can be used as a mobile classroom to promote sound environmental practices.”

He added, “If the van and a pickup truck we similarly converted run as efficiently as we expect, we will be converting as many as 20 of our other vehicles and will be calling on our local communities and school districts to consider doing the same.”

At this time, the technology is appropriate only for diesel-fueled vehicles that are too old to retrofit with catalytic-type exhaust upgrades.

To accomplish the transformation, the county Department of Public Works teamed up with V.O.Tech, located in Mahopac. At a cost of between $3,500-$5,000, the vehicles were retrofitted with new fuel systems that burn the vegetable oil, getting mileage similar to what they would have gotten on diesel fuel. 

Tests show that vegetable oil is more carbon-neutral than bio diesel and produces less particular matter and zero sulfur. As such, it does not adversely affect the environment the way gasoline and diesel fuels do.   

“With diesel fuel costing about $2.45 a gallon these days, the Veggie Van will pay for itself within two years,” Spano said.

The technology allows for the use of any vegetable oil,  but the county plans on getting its fuel mainly from the restaurant at Glen Island Park. The restaurant expends about 3,000 gallons of used vegetable oil annually.

Before it can be used in the Veggie Van, this oil must be filtered to get rid of globs of food, etc. The non usable portion (all biodegradable) will be used as compost at the county’s Hilltop Hanover Farm in Yorktown.

The public works department also retrofitted the inside of the Veggie Van, converting some of the seats into a movie theater of sorts (so videos can be shown), and adding shelves that are already overflowing with brochures and flyers promoting various environmental practices (recycling, using compact florescent bulbs, etc.) 

This vehicle will be made available to schools and other civic groups interested in learning about good environmental practices. It will also make appearances at the county’s various Household Chemical Clean Up Days.