=Cartoon Report=
Powering Cars with Used Cooking Oil !
The Ever Expanding Circle of Recycling
"The Society to Foster Environmental Cleaning-Owari" in kanie-cho, Aichi Prefecture
Report : Taichi Ozawa / Illustration : Nobuya Akamatsu

For the certoon reportage, we visited Kanie-cho, Ama-gun, Aichi Prefecture. Kanie is a town that borders Nagoya to the east. Kosho Yasui is the chief priest of Bukkoji Temple who will be the topic of this article. Mr. Yasui recycles used cooking oil to use as fuel for his diesel engined car.
He says, " Nagoya has developed toward the east, so even though we are about 10 minutes west by train from downtown Nagoya, Kanie-cho is an agricultural area with rice paddies." While being the chief priest of this temple, he doubles as the director of " The Society to Foster Environmental Cleaning-Owari " to keep this beautiful country. His use of used cooking oil as fuel is a part of this.
Now, household wastes have farnered attention recently as a source of environmental pollution. They are kitchen garbage and sewage. The most difficult of which are the edible oils. They are poured down the drain but they pollute rivers and the ocean and damage ecosystems.
But since we can't all go on diets, an oil-less dietary habits are inconceivable. Used edible oils will continues to be poured. What can be done? Mr.Yasui tackled this difficult problem.
Then he recalled reports of using eucalyptus oil in Australia and coconut oil in Brazil for cars. Taking this as a hint, after much trial and error, he finally succeeded in recycling used edible oil as auto fuel.
One can't simply pour used cooking oil into the gas tank with bits of fries still floating on it. Impurities in the fuel like that will knock out the engine. That will be like pouring heavy crude from the ground directly into the fuel tank. Just as crude oil must be refined, so must edible oils.
Such ideas of using used edible oils to power cars is not new. Mr.Yasui's accomplishment is in showing a simple "refining" method which anyone can follow.
First. heat the used edible oil in a fry-pan up to temperatures that will not cause burns. This way, bits of fries can be easily removed by sieving. First, remove bigger pieces with a mesh net. Smaller pieces can be filtered out with 2-3 layers of coffee filters.
Afterward, reheat the filtered oil. This is in order to remove any remaining water. There will be crackling sounds when the water is evaporating. Heat until those sounds stop.
Then, when all of the water has evaporated, filter it through charcoal to remove any solid oils while it's still hot. For charcoal, use ordinary refrigerator deodorant. He says that two of them are enough. Put the charcoal in between coffee filters and make 2-3 layers of them. He says that the charcoal can be used 2-3 times.
Now, this oil without impurities is ready to be mixed with gas oil. He says that in the summer, mix one part of used oil and two parts of gas oil and in the winter, make the mixture in the ratio of one to three. After putting this in a gas tank, you are free to drive. Performance is no different from using pure gas oil and the horsepower is even supposed to go up. But the fuel filter should be changed regularly every time with an oil change.
But anyway, used edible oils can be used as fuel as long as one has a diesel engined car. Then, not only can the problematic edible oils be recycled but the engine noise goes down and pollutants in the exhaust gas are reduced. That is killing three birds with one stone.
Recycling edible oils is part of the environment cleaning activities. The aim is not to replace gasoline but to return the edible oils to the environment in a way that is nature-friendly. When they are burned as car fuel, after they have released their energy, they will return to the atmosphere as water and CO2.
The word of this recycled edible oil fuel was spread by the organizational newsletters and newspaper reports and now a lot of used edible oil is pouring in from school meal centers of the town. The circle of recycling is spreading.

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How to make edible oil fuel 1. Heat used edible oil to facilitate filtering. 2. Filter it with coffee filters. 3. Heat it further and remove water. 4. Remove solid oil through charcoal. 5. Mix with gas oil. Summer : Winter : Gas oil 2, edible oil 1 Gas oil 3, edible oil 1

Enquiries should be directed to:
	"The Society to Foster Environmental Cleaning-Owari"
	230 Kami-shibagiri, Kanie-cho Ama-gun, Aichi Prefecture 497
	Phone	05679-6-6666
	Fax	05679-5-0202
	Atten : Kosho Yasui ( Chairman )