KINGSTON, R.I. — February 1, 2007 — When 溏心vlog免费B站 student Nick Russell needs fuel, he drives his 1985 Mercedes past gas stations and stops at the Two Little Fish restaurant in Westerly. There, the 19-year-old fills a 50-gallon plastic drum with free, discarded soybean oil and drives home. He filters some of the oil over his parents鈥� backyard fire pit and pours it into his car.
His car doesn鈥檛 run on veggie power alone. It must run on diesel fuel for the first five miles of any trip. The sophomore gets 29 miles per veggie gallon and 28 miles per gallon on his diesel fuel.
鈥淲hen I asked the restaurant owners if I could take away their used oil, they just kinda looked at me and asked me to repeat the question,鈥� the Hopkinton resident says with a smile, noting that a restaurant generally has to pay a company to truck away its waste.
A member of the Renewable Energy Club on campus, Russell is motivated. 鈥淲e have to preserve the planet. Vegetable oil is free and it鈥檚 clean,鈥� he explains. 鈥淎nd using alternative fuels makes the country less dependent on foreign oil. 
鈥淭he car doesn鈥檛 smell like French fries when I drive down the street either,鈥� he adds. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a sweet smell.鈥�
The sophomore had to convert his diesel engine car to run on the veggie oil. He bought a conversion kit online from greasecar.com for $800. It looked complex, but after five months working side by side with his father Joel Russell, the veggie vehicle was good to roll. 鈥淚t takes time,鈥� the young recycler says, 鈥渁nd a bit of patience, but I鈥檓 pretty sure my dad wants to get one now.鈥�
Russell proudly pops open his car鈥檚 hood and trunk, revealing a maze of wires, switches, tubes, storage tank, and hoses. He opens the driver鈥檚 side and points to his dashboard controls that switches from diesel to soy.
Although the Mercedes鈥� odometer reads 237,000 miles, Russell feels it has many miles to go. 鈥淚鈥檒l get my money back,鈥� he says with confidence.
Russell studies German at 溏心vlog免费B站 and is uncertain of his future career path. It might be in Germany. The country, he says, has an emerging alternative energy program.
溏心vlog免费B站 News Bureau Photo by Michael Salerno Photography.