![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1){kind=small}
weird From the Times (London) Online: Doctor used 'human fat to power car'
Joanna Sugden
A Beverly Hills plastic surgeon who claims to have turned fat, extricated in liposuction, into biofuel for his car has skipped town after US officials raided his surgery in an investigation into his procedures.And yes, this is possible. From Forbes.com:
Dr Craig Alan Bittner, who runs the Liposculpture clinic on Rodeo Drive, said that he had created “lipodiesel” with his patients’ excess subcutaneous fat.
The cosmetic surgeon told Forbes.com that he used the blubber to power two cars including his four-wheel-drive Ford.
Dr Bittner is under investigation by the California Department of Public Health because it is illegal in the state to use human medical waste to power vehicles.
Love handles can power a car? Frighteningly, yes. Fat--whether animal or vegetable--contains triglycerides that can be extracted and turned into diesel. Poultry companies such as Tyson are looking into powering their trucks on chicken schmaltz, and biofuel start-ups such as Nova Biosource are mixing beef tallow and pig lard with more palatable sources such as soybean oil. Mike Shook of Agri Process Innovations, a builder of biodiesel plants, says this year's batch of U.S. biodiesel was likely more than half animal-derived since the price of soybeans soared.Just the same, doesn't this remind you of something?
A gallon of grease will get you about a gallon of fuel, and drivers can get about the same amount of mileage from fat fuel as they do from regular diesel, according to Jenna Higgins of the National Biodiesel Board. Animal fats need to undergo an additional step to get rid of free fatty acids not present in vegetable oils, but otherwise, there's no difference, she says
Of course, count on Wired to pick up on the pop culture connection and include a good dose of skepticism besides.
Now, the mainstream media have done a pretty good job separating fact from fiction lately, and there is precedent for using human fat to power vehicles, but three clues leave us leery of Bittner's claims.
Clue No. 1: Forbes says human fat fueled Bittner's Ford SUV (like the Excursion in the photo illustration above) and his girlfriend's Lincoln Navigator. Unless she had the engine swapped, we're calling that B.S. because there's no diesel Navigator yet. No diesel, no lipodiesel — just a Lincoln with high cholesterol.
Clue No. 2: Bittner acts like a publicity whore. After his chain of medical-imaging clinics was shuttered due to false advertising, Bittner opened up a clinic on Rodeo Drive and called it Beverly Hills Liposculpture. Real subtle. A couple of blog posts and news headlines about Dr. Bittner's amazing "thigh-test" biofuel would thrill the sort of doctor who plasters his own mugshot all over his clinic's website.
Clue No. 3: We don't trust any story that's based on a movie. In the '90s, Dr. Bittner could've been working at the Paper Street Soap Company. In the '70s, Charlton Heston would've burst into Dr. Bittner's office screaming, "Alternative fuel is people!"
It seems that a lot of Dr. Bittner's life has been based on fiction, too: Though he practiced as a "liposculpture" specialist, his board certification was in radiology, and there are allegations that he let unlicensed workers perform surgeries. We truly hope his lipodiesel experiment was just another flabrication.
December 25 2008, 21:25:37 UTC 3 years ago