Fuel: How One Guy Turned Fry Grease Into an Energy Revolution

Back in 2004, America was blasting its way through Iraq to secure the Middle East, the danger of climate change (and the power of hurricanes) hadn’t yet hit Americans in the face, and pouring vegetable oil tossed out by fast food restaurants into gas tanks was something crazy hippies did. Well, one in particular: when Josh Tickell rolled across the country in a diesel van powered by a blend of ethanol and fry grease he sucked out of dumpsters, his five-year campaign had all the markings of a one-dude Carter-era here-comes-the-future pipe dream.

The thing was, his pipe didn’t belch a toxic brew of CO2, NO and other pollutants. It was as safe as it smelled — like french fries. Even better: vegetable oil was a heckuva lot cheaper than the alternative, which in 2004 was on its way to an all-time high. Turns out Tickell’s Veggie Van wasn’t a flash in the frying pan: it was on the bleeding edge of an energy movement so significant, it promised to replace petroleum-based fuel completely. It would also lead to a backlash over unintended consequences, like the rising food prices and water shortages biodiesel could cause in the developing world.

But Tickell’s not slowing down. In this installment of Motherboard, our own Eddy Moretti learned how he’s digging a new type of fuel — a biofuel based on algae, making it easier to produce, without the need of land or water — and taking his climate-changing, clean-burning, world-saving energy revolution to the masses with his organization and a new film. Yes, you can have fries with that.