FORBES- How a Beverly Hills doctor powered his SUV using his patients’ spare tires. Liposuctioning unwanted blubber out of pampered Los Angelenos may not seem like a dream job, but it has its perks. Free fuel is one of them. For a time, Beverly Hills doctor Craig Alan Bittner turned the fat he removed from patients into biodiesel that fueled his Ford SUV and his girlfriend’s Lincoln Navigator. Love handles can power a car? Frighteningly, yes. Fat–whether animal or vegetable–contains triglycerides that can be extracted and turned into diesel. Poultry companies such as Tyson are looking into powering their trucks on chicken schmaltz, and biofuel start-ups such as Nova Biosource are mixing beef tallow and pig lard with more palatable sources such as soybean oil. Mike Shook of Agri Process Innovations, a builder of biodiesel plants, says this year’s batch of U.S. biodiesel was likely more than half animal-derived since the price of soybeans soared.
A gallon of grease will get you about a gallon of fuel, and drivers can get about the same amount of mileage from fat fuel as they do from regular diesel, according to Jenna Higgins of the National Biodiesel Board. Animal fats need to undergo an additional step to get rid of free fatty acids not present in vegetable oils, but otherwise, there’s no difference, she says. Attorney Andrew Besser, who represents three patients, says the assistant and girlfriend removed too much fat from clients and left them disfigured. Dozens of other patients have complained to the state medical board, Besser says. The board is investigating Bittner but declined to comment.
Cripes! So, should we start harvesting fat people to reduce our dependence on oil?
I call BS. There is a discussion about this over on The Truth About Cars blog. Click here for the post: http://tinyurl.com/84dhj3
The problem with the story is that there is no diesel Lincoln Navigator sold in California.
#1. Yeah because it would be impossible to buy it in another state and DRIVE it there.
Sheesh.
B… bu… but just think about it for a moment. Liposuction could get us through the energy crunch that precipitated this recession/depression.
And America would return to its svelte self of the early 1900’s. No sense turning corn into ethanol directly. Use it as FOOD for the masses first, then harvest it from bellies and run all the Detroit SUVs we feel we need.
The comment “Cripes! Now I’ve heard everything,” may not apply. Especially after the new svelte John D. takes center stage on a future Cranky Geeks. Buff, slimmer and longer living…
Finally my car can enjoy soylent green as much as i do
IT’S MADE OF PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Great case of lateral thinking, I think: more power to him!
This brings a whole new meaning to the “grow your own fuel” movement…
That is a funny picture there McCullough
It reminds me of that liposuction clinic heist scene in, Fight Club.
I was thinking the same thing #9! Selling people’s fat asses back to them!!!
And #1, there are also kits to convert vehicles to Biodiesel as well.
When gas prices skyrocket again, maybe they can set up clinics to harvest the fat at no charge to fat asses. It won’t even look like America as we know it if there is no obesity epidemic! Imagine that John Lennon!
I’ve been burning my own fat to get around since I was 1.
Once again the US leads the world!
but Germany is a close second!
I can say that because I’m both an American and German… ha….
and I need to loose a few pounds… (next year)
#10
You cannot modify a gas vehicle to run on diesel or biodiesel. There is a kit to run a diesel engine on old fryer grease, but common rail diesel engines can’t use it, at least not now.
2nd, there is no need for a kit to run biodiesel in a diesel engine. It will run just fine if the hoses/tank can handle the biodiesel. Most can’t unless it is diluted with petroleum diesel.
Another thought. To clean biodiesel after removing the glycerin molecule, it take a LOT of water to clean the fuel producing a LOT of bad water.
Forget convertible, go cannibal.
Does this give NEW meaning to Pork barrel??
GREAT way to spend money.
Were you aware that the use of bio-wastes are strictly regulated by the Health Dept?
Not all organisms are denatured or killed even by incineration so this physician has put himself, his employees and the public at risk. Innovation is one thing… following the law while you do it is another. Secondly, the ethical issue of using human body parts, tissues or fluids is a serious conflict of interest. Remember the UCLA morgue tech who was caught selling body parts to Medical Device companies so physicians could practice with new devices?
Remember the surgeon who stenciled his initials into the abdomen of his surgical patient? There should be a new reality show: Physicians Gone Amuck. Now, this physician has run amuck to South America when his offices and SUV’s were raided to provide liposuction and diesel fuel to starving masses. (btw, the day my arse can fuel a large motor vehicle is the day I stop super-sizing my McDonalds order)