Sweden's Homes Heated with the Power of Bunny Blood

Lauren Davis — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 09:30:00 PDT

We've seen lamps that run on human blood and examined robots that eat corpses for fuel. Sweden is already using flesh-based biofuel, but it's not humans they're using to heat their homes; it's rabbits.

Why rabbits? The fuzzy critters have actually become a bit of a pest in Sweden; wild and stray pet rabbits alike have ravaged city parks in Stockholm, forcing hunters to think out the population. With all those bunny bodies piling up, it makes sense to put them to good use. So the bodies are shipped to Konvex, a company that turns animal and vegetable oils into automotive and heating oils. But even the reproductively prolific rabbits don't provide sufficient power, so Stockholm supplements their bunny-based power with other animal corpses, including cats and horses.

So does this mean human-derived fuels are next? As Scientific American notes, the jokes have been made. A group of activists called the Yes Men crashed a gas and oil industry luncheon, claiming to be representatives from Exxon Mobile. They then proceeded to deliver a presentation for a mock product called "Vivoleum," a fuel made from human bodies. The audience was reportedly less than amused.

Burning bunnies for biofuel? [Scientific American]

Fuel-Hungry Pirates Steal Used Cooking Oil to Run Their Cars

Annalee Newitz — Fri, 23 May 2008 07:00:00 PDT

Restaurants across the United States are reporting that thieves are stealing their used cooking oil, turning it into black-market biodiesel made in garage distilleries. In many cities where biodiesel fuel is popular, restaurants can earn up to $1.25 per gallon of the used stuff. Oil pirates, however, are rarely looking to make a buck. They are just whipping up biodiesel for their own uses, cutting out middlemen who go through a complicated certification process with the Environmental Protection Agency in order to distill the fuel from oil.

The Associated Press reports:

Grease is transformed into fuel through a chemical process called transesterification, which removes glycerine and adds methanol to the oil, leaving a thinner product that can power a diesel engine. Biodiesel can also be blended with petroleum diesel, and blends of the alternative fuel are now sold at 1,400 gas stations across the country. But as the price of diesel shoots up, so, too, does the value of grease.

That's where the pirates come in. Especially in areas where a lot of people are driving biodiesel cars, it can be much cheaper to brew your own fuel from stolen cooking oil than to buy it from legitimate sources. I can't wait to hear people offering me biofuel under their breaths, along with kind buds, when I walk down the street in San Francisco. Image via AP.

Biodiesel Pirates Steal Used Cooking Oil [MSNBC]

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Sweden's Homes Heated with the Power of Bunny Blood

Fuel-Hungry Pirates Steal Used Cooking Oil to Run Their Cars