How does an environmentalist
have a mid-life crisis?

BioRegional Co-Founder, Pooran Desai's mini,
mid-life crisis takes the form of a bio-fuelled
sports car:

“The follies which a man most regrets are those he failed to commit when he had the opportunity.”

Helen Rowland, 1875-1950, American writer.

I have an Eco-penthouse (or at least a top floor studio apartment at BedZED), fair-traded organic cotton natural indigo dyed shirts, car club membership, job with environmental NGO BioRegional, linen jeans, wind-up radio, solar powered watch, vegetarian shoes, hemp waistcoat…

I can’t complain, but when I came across Helen Rowland’s observation as a “quote of the week” in my diary, it gave form to a mild sense of discontent. Forty was on the horizon so when I started talking about sports cars at the office organic lunch club, there were mutterings of mid-life crisis. Down at the village bar with a couple of mates and over a bottle of local organic Eco-Warrior beer, a simple plan started to emerge. Could waste cooking oil just possibly be the answer?

I bought a kit car called a Tiger Cat which is based on the Ford Sierra and which had a racing tuned Ford 2 L Pinto engine. I then purchased a second-hand Ford 1.8 litre turbo diesel. I had a mechanic lined up but changing the engine proved to be a challenge too far for him. Could I find someone to undertake the job? I struggled to think. Then eureka! We knew two fantastic engineers at Cranfield University who might be up for the challenge. Dr James Brighton and colleague Dr Kim Blackburn had worked on BioRegional projects before. James had invented a revolutionary lavender harvester for us and both had worked with us on hemp harvesting machinery. James is also consultant to the TV programme Scrap Yard Challenge.

To cut a long story short, over the summer and autumn of 2003, James and Kim spent many evenings in the workshop. By Christmas 2003, the car was ready for a test run. I ordered a jerry can of 100% waste cooking oil bio-diesel from Aeolus, a company with the bio-diesel pilot plant near Ashford, Kent. I booked up the car club car and headed off to Cranfield.

We started the engine. The smell of chip fat was certainly distinctive but not at all unpleasant. Fifteen minutes later the car park was covered in rubber as James put the car through its paces. The bonnet wouldn’t fit back on, so he cut a hole in it. We had our road legal sports car which could run on a waste product converted to a carbon neutral fuel – a zero carbon zero waste sportscar. In James’ words, “It has high smiles per mile”.

Spring in the air now also carries the faint aroma of chips.

Biodiesel enquiries: email David Teal at Aeolus Partnership dteal@aeolus.worldonline.co.uk

Last updated 14th January 2008