TV hosts to lecture despite machinery fire

OREM — If there's anything that working in TV has taught Ron and Mary Crafts, it's that the show must go on.

A fire Monday destroyed some $100,000 worth of machinery in a shed the couple owns, which was used to convert leftover vegetable oils from restaurants into biodiesel fuel to power the generator and delivery trucks for their catering company, Culinary Crafts.

The Crafts planned to do a demonstration of the process at their Orem location today. The Crafts, who built a catering company out of their own kitchen and then parlayed that into a cooking show on KBYU-TV, isn't letting that stop their plans. They said Tuesday that today's demonstration would continue as planned.

Culinary Crafts has been using the process to power its trucks for about a year. Biodiesel is a non-toxic, biodegradable fuel source created by combining vegetable oils or animal fats and some form of alcohol, usually methanol. The resulting product operates in standard diesel engines.

Biodiesel, which was mostly overlooked for many years, has grown in popularity in recent years in some circles as government officials and private citizens have searched for alternatives to traditional diesel fuel as petroleum costs have steadily risen. Environmental concerns have also spurred the development of biodiesel fuels, as they burn with significantly fewer emissions.

A company in nearby Lindon, Indian Oil, recently won approval from the city council to operate a biodiesel production process, which owners hope will generate 300,000 gallons of fuel per year.

The Crafts will not be able to do a live demonstration of how their proprietary conversion process works, but plan to use a multimedia presentation to illustrate it.