Grease is the word for alternative fuel

CHICAGO, May 23 (UPI) -- Restaurants are filling up more than stomachs as U.S drivers turn to used grease as an alternative fuel to skyrocketing gasoline costs, market analysts say.

Increasingly, restaurants are being paid for their used cooking oil, instead of having to pay someone to take the discolored, food particle-filled goop away, the Chicago Tribune reported Friday.

Not so coincidentally, sales for kits that allow diesel-powered cars to run on the spent cooking oil also are on the rise.

Rising energy prices greased the wheels for grease's popularity.

"It all goes back to the high price of crude oil," said Bill Dieterichs, an analyst at The Jacobsen, a Chicago publication that follows grease and tallow markets. "That's what started the ball rolling."

Biodiesel, primarily derived from soybean oil, can be made from a number of fats, including used cooking oil. With a conversion kit, grease car drivers can fill their tanks at their local eateries.

Jonathan Erber of Harvard, Ill., says he prefers the oil from Chinese restaurants to power his 1993 Chevrolet diesel pickup.

"I get higher performance from their peanut oil. I barely touch the pedal and it gets up to 60 (mph)," he said.