Annie O'Neill, Post-Gazette David Rosenstraus, left, and Colin Huwyler are co-owners of Fossil Free Fuel in Braddock.

By Elwin Green
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Four years ago Colin Huwyler was a 17-year-old college freshman looking for a way to save money on his 45-minute commute to the University of Buffalo when he learned that it was possible to run a diesel car on vegetable oil.

"The prospect seemed mighty appealing," he said, so he got his hands on a 1998 Volkswagen Jetta and ordered a kit to perform the conversion that would allow it to run on the excess grease that restaurants throw away.

"It worked, and everybody was shocked."

Yesterday, Mr. Huwyler and business partner David Rosenstraus, 25, opened the doors to Fossil Free Fuel LLC, a shop in Braddock that designs and installs fuel systems that allow diesel vehicles to operate on processed waste vegetable oil. The two men relocated from Allentown in Eastern Pennsylvania to set up operations in a 9,000-square-foot former electronics store at 223 Braddock Ave.

Neither of the men expected to end up in Braddock or even become business owners. While Mr. Huwyler was a political science major at the University of Buffalo, Mr. Rosenstraus was finishing a dual bachelor's degree in music and economics at Muhlenberg College in Allentown.

Like Mr. Huwyler, Mr. Rosenstraus turned to biodiesel as a way of reducing fuel costs. He was involved with several bands that shared the use of a van for touring, and in 2003 he bought a conversion kit online "so we could go on tour, pay less for gas, and not support Big Oil ... and be environmentally friendly."

That June, the group got a gig in Buffalo, and slept at the house that Mr. Huwyler shared with roommates. The pair met and shared their interest in biodiesel and about how there was a need that existing companies weren't fulfilling when it came to converting diesel vehicles. Each of them was now performing conversions for friends and for friends of friends, and felt that they could improve on the conversion kits that were available -- for instance, by shaping the biodiesel fuel tank to take advantage of dead space in a car rather than simply placing it in the trunk, where it reduces available space. Conversions require adding a fuel tank rather than simply replacing the existing fuel tank because converted vehicles still use a small amount of diesel fuel when starting and when shutting down the engine.

In January 2005, Mr. Huwyler went into business selling an original fuel system, which Mr. Rosenstraus, who quit his job as a visiting nurse the following month, used to do conversions. That fall, Mr. Huwyler moved to Allentown, where the two opened a 2,000-square-foot shop.

The two men had friends in Pittsburgh, and in the spring of 2005 did a diesel conversion for Red Star Ironworks, a Millvale-based blacksmithing company. Red Star owner Peter Lambert also is a co-founder of Steel City Biofuels, a nonprofit that advocates for the use of nonfossil fuels. That led to a meeting with Steel City executive director Nathaniel Doyno.

"He always asked us when we were going to move here," Mr. Rosenstraus said. "It was kind of a joking thing."

But when the two began talking about moving to a city "that had a good diesel technology school" with which they could partner on projects, only three met the bill: Austin, Texas; Nashville, Tenn.; and Pittsburgh, with the Rosedale Technical Institute in Kennedy.

When Mr. Doyno introduced them to the mayor of Braddock, John Fetterman, that tipped the scales.

"He was super supportive and very encouraging," said Mr. Huwyler. The mayor spoke to building owners and arranged walkthroughs to help them locate a facility. He even went so far as to offer them a year of rent-free housing in a home that he owns.

"It was a great way to illustrate a couple of different points," Mr. Fetterman said. "First, that we are eager to attract new businesses, particularly green ones, and second, that we have an abundance of inexpensive and affordable housing."

In February, the pair moved to Braddock and in their short time there, plunged waist-deep into the local alternative energy scene. They have made their facility available for a series of classes on Basic Mechanics and Biofuels for Women, to be held on weekends through September. They are working with Steel City Biofuels to develop a co-operative whose members will be able to make their own biodiesel. And they hope to make Fossil Fuels the home of the archival library of the National VegOil Board, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based nonprofit promoting the use of vegetable oil as fuel.

Their goal for the library is to collect "every newspaper article, YouTube video and news segment that we can possibly get our hands own," so that when the Environmental Protection Agency begins its process of certifying vegetable oil as a fuel for commercial and consumer use, "we'll have every ounce of information that's ever been presented" to help make the case for certification.

Perhaps the most unusual conversion that the pair have done was for a customer who wanted to be able to drive from Allentown to Florida without refueling. The vehicle was a Ford Excursion, one of the largest SUVs on the road. Converting it meant installing two tanks for vegetable oil, one holding 44 gallons and the other 32 gallons, as well as an 18-gallon tank for diesel fuel.

"Every stage was more difficult than anything we'd done before," Mr. Huwyler said. But knowing that there is now an uber-SUV out there running on restaurant waste provides an ironic satisfaction.

"That's a vehicle that someone sees and has every possible idea about it," Mr. Huwyler said, "except that it's running on vegetable oil."