DEC 29

I've heard of people going to extremes to make biodiesel, but this story has to be the strangest thing I’ve heard in a while. A Beverly Hills doctor is currently under investigation because the fat he removed from his patients was allegedly used to fuel his Ford Explorer and his girlfriend's Lincoln Navigator.

You can't make this stuff up.

Craig Alan Bittner, who has since shut down his practice and moved to South America, said his patients wanted him to use their fat for fuel. “Not only do they get to lose their love handles or chubby belly,” wrote Dr. Bittner on the website lipodiesel.com (which has since been taken down), “but they also get to take part in saving the Earth.”

Most biofuel in the U.S. currently has beef tallow or pig lard mixed in with soybeans because the animal products are cheaper to add in than pricey soybeans. Animal (and, presumably, human) fat gets drivers the same amount of mileage as regular diesel, but it needs to be processed more than vegetable-based biofuel.

Besides the fact that using human fat for this purpose is a crime (under laws that probably few of us knew existed, using human medical waste to fuel cars is illegal in California), experiments such as these don’t exactly help the reputation of biofuels. And even if the thought of running your car on human flesh doesn’t creep/gross you out, I would venture to guess that it would have that effect on most people. Sorry, Tyler Durden. Back to the drawing board.

Meanwhile, it’s unclear what is going to happen to Dr. Bittner. He is currently volunteering at a clininc in South America, and he maintains that all of his liposuction procedures were performed without a “single serious complication or infection”. Some question whether he could have even done what he claimed to have done in the first place, since Lincoln Navigators don’t run on diesel…

Via WIRED

Comments (13)

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This is not the first time this has been
written by Mark Bartosik, December 29, 2008

Not the first time.
The skipper of the power boat Earth Race did it.

http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/1742/70/

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written by Peripatetic - the Alaska Wanderer, December 29, 2008

OK, I realize that I'm putting myself in the line of fire, but I must. Keeping in mind that most laws arise out of one or more human abuses, best-of-intention legislation often leads to throwing the baby out with the bath water. Consider one of the most basic tenets of permaculture: the problem is the solution. Where is this fat going otherwise? Into a sewage treatment system equipped with an oil-water separator, that will eventually yield the same stuff mixed with some other undesirable components that will likely be burned or buried in some waste disposal center? Perhaps they're fed into an energy-dependent bio-waste incinerator? Or perhaps it's being burned for energy recovery, to heat the clinic itself, though I doubt it.

Certainly, the thought is somewhat vile, but to some, the thought of one slicing and dicing one's self into a "new you" is offensive, too, yet it occurs. So, why NOT recover it as bio-fuel? Are we concerned that those with any visible excess lipid may be snatched under the cover of night, and then, minus a love handle, jettisoned to the nearest side street to bleed and die of infection? It is possible, but it is also extremely unlikely. OK, maybe not in India, though even there, I suspect the price that the hijacked "bio-fuel" might bring would pale in comparison to the high-dollar value of a kidney, say, or a heart.

The days of generating any waste at all must come to an end. Regardless of what a material once was, it has some type of energy or function yet to be extracted, and if not, we need engineers and designers to develop materials that do yield a recoverable element - and a functioning infrastructure for that recovery. Don't just think outside the box, kick its side-walls down!

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written by Ronjo, December 29, 2008

If we could effectively separate waste that contained oil and send it to a squeezing plant. America would not be solely dependant on foreign oil. Just about every organism has oil content.

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written by Catherine, December 30, 2008

It's a morally fascinating question though: what, exactly, is wrong with it? I know it gives people an 'ick' or whatever, but other than that feelings-based reaction what could the moral opposition be? These things can be regulated, and I really can't think of a better use for someone's leftover fat.

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Diesel powered Ford Explorer and Lincoln
written by Luke, December 31, 2008

All ick-factor aside, I'd like to know how he ran a Ford Explorer and a Lincoln Navigator off of biodiesel. AFAIK, neither of these vehicles is manufactured with a diesel engine in the US -- and conversions are likely to be expensive, finicky, and tricky to integrate with a digital dashboard.

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Diesel Ford Explorer and Lincoln
written by Ottar, January 02, 2009

Not sure about the Lincoln, but perhaps it could have been a Ford Expedition, rather than an explorer. The Expedition has been available with the Ford Powerstroke 7.3 diesel engine for a while.

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written by online games, April 10, 2009

All ick-factor aside, I'd like to know how he ran a Ford Explorer and a Lincoln Navigator off of biodiesel. Neither of these vehicles is manufactured with a diesel engine in the US and conversions are likely to be expensive, finicky, and tricky to integrate with a digital dashboard.

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written by film izle, May 22, 2009

All ick-factor aside, I'd like to know how he ran a Ford Explorer and a Lincoln Navigator off of biodiesel. Neither of these vehicles is manufactured with a diesel engine in the US and conversions are likely to be expensive, finicky, and tricky to integrate with a digital dashboard.

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" in the time of the great anarchy"
written by Uncle B, May 25, 2009

As financial derivatives taunt the economy, and rising oil prices bring strife, as we approach our fission-fire Armageddon, and see the great dragon of China biting at our heels, As industry goes to Asia and Ford starts to melt down, as GM collapses and Chrysler falls down, soon the civil unrest will spout, black and white will fight it out! America covered in smog, its fat people fuel for marauding gangs of hungry anarchists, raiding the streets, looking for fat folks to render for fuel for their diesels, and daughters to rape and food to steal. We are doomed by our own technologies and face Hell unseen, we, at the hand of our own mighty machine. Europe will gasp, Asia will smile, America will turn into a rubble pile! Financial derivatives will be our final blow, the Yuan will prevail, on world markets and the dollar will sink like a stone! Sinful folk will turn to churches, Church-folk will run the streets in confusion, "Special" battle weary soldiers will try to enforce laws they themselves don't understand. The first sign of the downfall and the beginning of this Anarchy will be a fission-fire in the heartland, destroying it forever. The American Chernobyl, from our error free reactors will change the face of America until the folks from Chernobyl return home to their farms. Even to the Bible, our guide from the old, sins such as we commit are stranger than told. We have invented new ways to disgust and dehumanize ourselves and will continue until we are destroyed by our own hands. Aids is a foreboding, a harbinger of what is to come, burning one another to drive cars just for fun? Satan and G d, they don't exist, they gave up on our sicknesses long ago and live on the other side of the universe now, in peace and away from us. Fission fires and burning flesh, the last smokes of hell, the last of us.

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written by links, June 15, 2009

links

of london friendship bracelet
links of london

sweetie
links of london ring

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written by Fred, June 25, 2009

Oh that is gross.

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AF1
written by gruby, August 31, 2009

One word: Tough. Introducing the all-new Danner Nike Air Force Ones 2009 Hot boot
Cheap Nike Air Force Ones shoes is very popular in the market,
New Nike Air Force Ones also is my favorite.

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nnj
written by sara, December 17, 2009

entitled "Computing multiple roots of inexact polynomials."
# Hub Hougland is a dentist in Muncie, Indiana. He was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame last year.

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