Grease is the word — Culinary Crafts of Orem turns cooking oil into biodiesel

OREM — Hate those prices at the gas pump? Well, relief might be as close as the vat of grease left over from frying chicken, doughnuts or french fries.

For the past year, Ron and Mary Crafts, owners of Culinary Crafts in Orem, have recycled used cooking oil into biodiesel fuel. It powers their generator and runs their catering company's 17 vehicles "for prices that would stun you," according to Ron Crafts.

Biodiesel is a nontoxic, biodegradable fuel that's made by combining vegetable or animal fat and some form of alcohol, usually methanol. It runs in standard diesel engines and burns with fewer emissions.

Although biodiesel has been around for more than 100 years, interest has grown lately due to concerns over rising gas prices, America's dependency on foreign oil and the environment.

The Crafts demonstrated the process last Wednesday in a large tent on the Culinary Crafts grounds, heated comfortably by biodiesel fuel. Onlookers included the media, biodiesel companies, and the heads of trucking and construction companies that use high amounts of fuel.

"We probably go through 500 gallons of fuel here a week, which we are now making from 100 percent used oil," said Mary Crafts in an interview after the demonstration. "We're not a huge frying operation, so we don't have that much grease, but we get a lot of it from the P.F. Chang's and McDonald's in Orem. Chinese restaurants and fast food are a great source. Usually, the restaurants have to pay to have their grease taken away."

On Mother's Day last year, her husband gave her a new diesel-powered Mercedes Benz that runs on biodiesel.

"I stopped going to gas stations and I gave up diet Coke," she said. "I went from spending $500 a month to fuel my Escalade to $80 a month to fuel my Mercedes. We have seen it transform our fleet here at Culinary Crafts. When fuel prices went through the roof, we weren't affected as much, although the costs of the food that had to be shipped here were higher."

The Crafts operate one of Utah's most visible catering companies, with a cooking show on KBYU-TV. During the 2002 Olympics, they catered receptions for both President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

But their biodiesel demo wasn't as impressive as originally planned, because on Monday a fire destroyed their refrigerator-size machine that made the fuel. Instead, scientist John Crawford demonstrated the process using its "little brother."