BrevardBioDiesel Blog

UPDATE: Public demo of the bus at Canova Beach park 11am-1pm Wed Dec 5

The BioTour vegetable-oil powered bus is in the Brevard area. We caught up with the crew in Melbourne Beach to hear their mission and see the bus.

Ethan Burke and Alan Palm purchased a used school bus in 2006 and have since traveled to over 20 states, racking up over 30,000 miles (largely powered by used restaurant fryer oil) in a mission to raise awareness about alternative energy. They plan to visit the remaining states, ramp up with more buses, and participate in the 2008 US campaign trail.

On the tech front, the bus has several drums for storage of WVO - which is pumped directly from the restaurant dump bins. Two large parallel inline filters along the side of the bus perform the first stage of filtering. An Elsbett system coordinates fuel and tank heating with cutover from diesel to the WVO. The bus also has a solar panel rack on top driving an inverter/battery setup inside which provides compact fluorescent lighting and additional AC outlets.

Jay, Lori, Alan, Fernando, Ethan with BioTour Bus - photo by Jenny