By Alyssa Solomon, Senior at Andover High School, MA

Change follows inspiration. It only takes one person’s words or actions to motivate another, sparking a fire of change, as I have learned firsthand. Five years ago, I was deeply influenced during a seventh grade assembly at Wood Hill Middle School. A young man stood on the stage and told us his name was Mike Parziale. In jeans and a T-shirt, he was casual in dress and tone, but what he told us fascinated me instantly. Parziale had spent the past year driving around the country in his grease-powered van, while creating a documentary for MTV. His innovative, seemingly impossible business, called Grease Not Gas, focused on converting diesel cars, trucks and buses to operate on vegetable oil. Since then, my lifestyle and dreams have been forever changed.

Before I heard Parziale speak, I already had a natural instinct and passion for the environment and its protection. I have always loved planting strawberries and pumpkins, hiking in the White Mountains, and encouraging my family to recycle paper, plastic, metal and glass at home. Parziale introduced me to a new kind of recycling, though. Using cooking oil to fuel cars surely had not crossed my mind. When he told us that the first diesel engine operated on peanut oil, I was motivated to learn more about biofuel versus fossil fuel.

The more I researched the oil and coal industry, the more infuriated I became. How could a whole world have come to rely on such a dirty and dangerous fuel?

Forwarding to the present, I just finished converting my first diesel engine car to run on vegetable oil.

Earlier this year, I used all the money I had saved to buy a 1986 Mercedes Benz 300 SDL from a local mathematics professor and diesel enthusiast who was initially horrified at my plans for his beloved sedan.

Although this is an over-simplified explanation, the conversion process basically consisted of mounting an eighteen-gallon aluminum tank into the trunk to hold the filtered waste vegetable oil. The tank’s interior is lined with a high-flow copper coil through which heated coolant passes. The coolant is pumped from the radiator, where it is eventually returned by a large rubber hose running under the car. The heated coolant raises the temperature of the viscous vegetable oil until it is hot, and thus, liquid enough to travel to the engine via an added fuel line. Since converted cars must still initially start on diesel fuel, the changeover from diesel to vegetable oil and back again is manually controlled by two switches on the dashboard, so I can switch over while I drive.

I feel so gratified about converting my car because I am able to cut down my fossil fuel use considerably and still have a convenient means of transportation. By using waste vegetable oil, I am fueling my car with a recycled, renewable energy source.

Through my involvement with ACE, I have been fortunate enough to learn useful tools to spread my enthusiasm for protecting the environment. Completing the orientation and advanced training days, I am now prepared to spread my message and story with other students.

For the next few months, I plan to visit the elementary and middle schools in my town to present my converted car and explain more about biofuel and the importance of relying less on fossil fuel. I can only hope that I influence a student in the way that Mike Parziale inspired me.

I actually got to meet and thank Parziale earlier this year. We spent an hour looking under the hood of my Mercedes and talking about fuel conversions.

I look forward to the day when a student may come up to me and tell me that I prompted him or her to become more environmentally aware. As Elie Wiesel has urged, “Thou shalt not stand idly by.” And so, I hope to become the next passionate person to spark inspiration and contribute to the positive fire of environmental and social change in my town, country, and world.