INSIDE LINE

Want Fries With That Citation? Filipino Police Force Converting Cruisers to Used McDonald's Oil

Media Player

  • McDonald's French Fries

    McDonald's French Fries

    Global oil: McDonald's in Manila is lending used cooking oil to the cause of alternative energy for the city's police force. | September 15, 2009

News

Want Fries With That Citation? Filipino Police Force Converting Cruisers to Used McDonald's Oil

    0 Ratings
    MANILA, Philippines — In the Makati financial district, that tantalizing smell in the air just might be a police car. The police force here is the latest to try out the idea of running a cruiser partly on used cooking oil from McDonald's restaurants. If it works well, the 60 percent diesel/40 percent French-fry-oil blend could become a standard fuel for the police fleet.

    The Manila Times reported on Tuesday that the Makati Police Department's PNP-Bio Diesel Program will save the force about $22 per fill-up at current fuel prices, or the equivalent of more than $11,000 a year when spread among 10 patrol cars.

    The police chief, Gilbert Cruz, and Professor Roel Judilla of the Mapua Institute of Technology co-developed the project, which filters the cooking oil and cools it before blending it with diesel. It's not just French-fry oil; it will come from a range of fast-food restaurants around the city, although McDonald's was the first donor and sent a representative to the press conference that kicked off the project.

    Six months of testing are planned, said Judilla.

    What this means to you: Mmmm, smells like chicken¿and like a recycling idea we've heard before but one whose time may have come. — Laura Sky Brown, Correspondent

    Close

    Share on Facebook Share on Facebook
    Share on Twitter Share on Twitter

    Advertisement

    Tags

    Advertisement