TERRE HAUTE —
Up a winding driveway, tucked off a main road in Clay County, sits an average-looking house in a hardwood forest. The homeowners, Chris and Lori Hart, are two resourceful people. They used the hardwood timber on their property to build the floors and walls in their home. And the cluster of steel drums sitting in their driveway is a hint of their ultimate quest in resourcefulness.
Used cooking oil propels family vehicles
The Hart family has agreements with local restaurants and delis to haul away their used cooking oil.
“Before I started taking the oil, they were paying to get rid of it. They were paying someone to have it hauled away like trash. I simply go in and say, ‘I would like to give you a better deal, I am going to take your stuff away for free. No paperwork for you or me to do. If you put it out, I will take it away,’ ” Chris Hart said.
Chris reuses the vegetable oil as fuel for his family’s vehicles. He says people can use straight vegetable oil in a vehicle with a diesel engine, but he doesn’t recommend it because it is hard on the engine. To thin the vegetable oil, Chris makes biodiesel, a process where he separates out the sugars that are naturally in triglyceride oil, to thin the oil so it can burn well in a diesel engine.
According to the Energy Information Administration, the idea of using vegetable oil for fuel has been around as long as the diesel engine. The most common sources of oil for biodiesel production in the United States are soybean oil and “yellow grease,” also known as recycled cooking oil from restaurants.
Biodiesel blends perform better than petroleum diesel, but its relatively high production costs and the limited availability of some of the raw materials used in its production continue to limit biodiesel’s commercial application.
The average person may spend $30 to $50 a week on fuel for a vehicle. For you, is that a small price to pay for convenience or a high price to pay for transportation?
“Say you are paying three dollars for a gallon of gas,” Chris said. “You may have had to earn five dollars before tax so that you have the three dollars left over. Fuel that I make is actually worth more to me than what I would have to pay at the pump because I would have to earn that money in the first place. Time is money but taxes have to be taken into consideration. I feel to me the fuel I make is worth more than the four dollars diesel at the pump because of the tax.”
Oil byproduct spawns family soap business
The Harts take what is left from making biodiesel and use it to make soap. Soap is made by treating vegetable or animal oils and fats with a strong alkaline solution. Fats and oils are composed of triglycerides; three molecules of fatty acids are attached to a simple molecule of glycerin. The alkaline solution is often lye.
“The process to make biodiesel and the process to make soap are very similar. When you make biodiesel you add alcohol, and when you make soap you add water. In both cases you use lye,” Chris said.
Because their soap stems from the biodiesel process, it has five times the amount of glycerin as normal homemade soap does. If you have ever purchased inexpensive soap before, it most likely contained a very low amount of glycerin (if any), which can leave hands feeling dry.
“Our soap is made from vegetable [fat], rather than from animal fat. That tends to make the soap a little softer. Because we use a biodiesel reaction, our bars are nearly half glycerin. Commercial soap often has most or all of the glycerin extracted. That is why their bars are hard, and that is why they can leave your skin dry. They pull out the glycerin for other uses,” Chris said.
Because the soap is made from soybean and canola oil and those seeds are brown, the soap Lori makes and sells is a light or dark color brown. The general reaction from the public when she showcases her product at area festivals is not always positive. Lori says, “they like green or purple, but green and purple are not natural. The gold or brown color is natural.” Other interesting things potential customers want to do is smell the soap first, not ask how well it cleans.
“We are very limited on what scents we can put in the bars because we use a hot process to make them. At a high temperature any natural scents we add evaporate out,” Lori said.
Resourcefulness Shared Overseas
Buying a mango fruit in the U.S. can cost a couple dollars. To think we are paying a couple dollars for a mango would suggest there is a high value for the fruit. But what value would it have to a farmer in Africa if he has no way of getting it on the market?
Enter the Harts. They have been taking their knowledge of resourcefulness and sharing it overseas. Their latest mission has been in Zambia, Africa. They have been working to get basic utility vehicles into remote areas. BUVs are a lot like all-terrain vehicles but with the inclusion of a trailer bed on the back. They are made of light material and designed to be used in the rugged rural areas in Africa. Africa does not have the road infrastructure set up to transport products from villages into major cities like the United States has. The idea behind the BUVs is, if enough villages have access to main roads, they can transport goods they grow in their own community and enter them into the market to make a profit.
“One time we were visiting a town across the river, too far away from an area to buy lunch, so we stopped and asked a villager if we could buy some of his mangoes for lunch. He laughed and laughed and thought it was one of the most ridiculous things he has ever heard, to buy mangoes. They literally have hundreds of thousands of tons of mangoes that rot each year. The mangoes are untapped wealth. The wealth is useless to them because they can’t turn it into anything other than mangoes. If they had a way of converting it to shoes or clothes, then it would become useful,” Chris said.
Fuel is double the price in Zambia compared with what we pay here in the U.S. The BUV uses one fourth the amount of fuel of a regular pickup truck and can be used on the same terrain. Furthermore, if the BUV were to break down, all of the parts can be found at a hardware store in Zambia. Additionally, the BUV engine runs on diesel, or can run on biodiesel.
“What we are trying to do is get ourselves in a position where we can manufacture the BUVs in Zambia along with biodiesel. But the vehicle is the primary thrust,” Chris said.
“We would like to teach them how to build the vehicle and grow the seeds to make the biodiesel and then make soap. Then you would have a female job and lots of male jobs,” Lori said.
Part of the Harts’ mission is to teach people — in this community and abroad — not to overlook resources they have and to see if those resources might have other purposes.
“We are taking things that are basically trash and turning them into very useful products for us and other people,” Chris said.
Together, the Harts believe people can make things go a lot farther if they pay attention to what they have and maintain it, instead of treating everything as if it is disposable.
For more information about the BUV, visit www.drivebuv.org, and to contact the Hart family, email iwantmoresoap@gmail.com.
Features
Related Photos
-
Without the diesel fuel odor: Chris Hart says the refined fuel he makes from used vegetable oil doesn't have the acrid smell of diesel fuel. Here an example of it sits in Hart's home in Clay County. (Tribune-Star/Joseph C. Garza)
-
From the deli to the diesel: Chris Hart shows an example of the refined fuel he has made from common cooking oil he gets from local restaurants and delis Tuesday at his home in Clay County. (Tribune-Star/Joseph C. Garza)
-
A simple process: Lori Hart shows what her family's soap looks like in her home in Clay County Tuesday. The Harts' soap has a greater amount of glycerin in it. (Tribune-Star/Joseph C. Garza)
-
Common scents: Lori and Chris Hart offer two different scented soaps, pine and peppermint and an unscented natural version. (Tribune-Star/Joseph C. Garza)
-
On her soap box: Lori Hart stamps her name on the soap boxes she uses for her homemade soap at the family's home in Clay County. (Tribune-Star/Joseph C. Garza)
-
A little softer: "Our soap is made from vegetable, rather than from animal fat. That tends to make the soap a little softer," said Chris Hart about his family's homemade soap which is a byproduct of his biodiesel production. (Tribune-Star/Joseph C. Garza)
-
(Submitted photo) Travels easily: A basic utility vehicle sits in a dip. The BUV easily travels on rough terrain.
-
(Submitted photo) Work truck: A basic utility vehicle is used by workers in Ghana.
-
(Submitted photo) School bus: A basic utility vehicle is used to transport students to school in Zimbabwe.
Discussion
Doing a lot with a little: Family’s resourcefulness leads it to reuse vegetable oil as fuel
Hart family make soap with byproduct and teach practices overseas
- Features
-
-
3 virtues 4-H has taught these youths
Perseverance, integrity, honesty, responsibility and service are the hallmarks of any successful business.
-
YOUR GREEN VALLEY: A Wood’s student’s quest to save thousands of turtles
If you don’t like something, sometimes it’s a matter of taking it into your own hands to change it. For Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College student, Amber Slaughterbeck, that mentality couldn’t be any more true.
-
TRIED 'N' TRUE: Fix this Oven Fried Chicken ahead of time
When my brother Gary’s wife got breast cancer, he needed something he could fix ahead of time to throw into the oven when it was time to fix supper after Kathy’s treatments.
-
Fit for a King: Couple opens Clayshire Castle as bed and breakfast in rural Bowling Green
There aren’t too many castles around the Wabash Valley, but now there is one worth checking out. Sit back and relax, and let me tell you the story of the Clayshire Castle and Lord Douglas and Lady Josephine. It’s a modern day fairy tale complete with, yes, a castle.
-
Steps to the River: Watermark Landing project brings artistic recognition to Valley’s most prominent waterway
Petra Nyendick recalls that when she moved to Terre Haute in 2005 in hopes of opening an art gallery, one of her initial surprises was usage of the Wabash River by people in the city was so light.
-
Bond of Brothers: Performance to reveal complex kinship between Dreiser and ‘My Brother Paul’
Two famed writers linger in Tedi Dreiser Godard’s family tree.
-
Longtime weatherman Jesse Walker relates well to people of Wabash Valley
While in middle and high school, Jesse Walker developed a strong interest in the weather. He thought about a career at the National Weather Service or at a storm prediction center, but the idea of becoming a television meteorologist never entered his mind.
-
CULINARY COURSES: Clabber Girl Classroom Kitchen provides variety of cooking courses for the Valley
There are a few taste-bud-tantalizing-perks for having America’s leading baking powder producer in your backyard. For nearly 120 years, Clabber Girl has been a staple in Terre Haute. In 1899, Hulman and Company began offering up what was to become one of the oldest brands in the country, Clabber baking powder. In 1923, the company changed the baking powder brand name to Clabber Girl.
-
RIVER OF SOUND: Composer sees symphony bring his musical imagination to life
David Watkins smiled as he stood on the Tilson Auditorium stage. The audience stood, too, applauding.
Two of his compositions had just been performed by the Terre Haute Symphony Orchestra. Neither piece — “A Wabash Portrait” and “River Fanfare” — had been played publicly in decades. -
The Beauties of Spring: Stunning array of wildflowers bloom each spring in Collett Park
Groundskeepers put off the first mowing of Collett Park each spring.
Admirers of the place, Terre Haute’s oldest park, like it that way.
A stunning array of wildflowers covers the 21-acre lawn for a few short weeks. Those plants, known as “spring beauties,” emerge in March, bloom in April and go dormant by May, when the brilliant waves of white and pink flowers disappear. -
Day spent with daughter inspires Valley man to write children’s book for her
It started with a warm sunny blackberry picking outing, a bee buzzing, a little bird nest with eggs in it and a little girl begging her daddy for a night-time story. And from those ingredients the children’s book, “The Bee in the Blackberry Bush” came to fruition.
-
From kilts to haggis, Wabash Valley Scottish Society marks a decade of preserving heritage
As soon as Richard Cooper breaks into his Scottish accent, a smile automatically follows.
It happened last week as he recited a work of legendary Scotland poet Robert Burns. -
Witness to history: April movie chronicles Jackie Robinson’s trials as be breaks Major League Baseball’s color barrier — something Vigo County native Harry Taylor witnessed first hand
The upcoming movie “42” aims to show America what Jackie Robinson endured.
Harry Taylor witnessed it firsthand.
Robinson wore jersey No. 42 for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. Taylor wore 41. Both were 28-year-old rookies, considerably older than most. Taylor got delayed by military service in World War II. Professional baseball’s unwritten but ironclad code of racial discrimination had kept Robinson and other African-Americans out of the majors since the 1880s. -
Sisterly Habits: Fillenwarth sisters are linked together in more than one sense
The Fillenwarth sisters are sisters in more than one sense of the word.
Both were born two of the eight children of city cop Henry and his wife Catherine Fillenwarth. Both grew up among a large and giving Catholic extended family in inner-city Indianapolis in the 1940s. -
Geocaching Indiana: Clay County man develops idea to use geo-art to create outline of state in caches
Indiana, long-known as the Crossroads of America, has for years been a destination for people coming from around the world to witness such activities as the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race, Indianapolis Colts football games and Indiana University Hoosiers basketball games.
Since October 2012, Indiana’s attractions have come to include the surprising geo-art creation of a group of Wabash Valley geocachers — people who use Global Positioning Systems and similar location-sensitive devices to find hidden objects for fun. -
Voice of a Storyteller: Chance meeting of Twain, Paris youngster inspired narrative voice of Huck Finn
The block offers no hints of its place in American literary history.
Customers dodge raindrops, walking in and out of an auto parts store. -
Pearls of the Wabash: Efforts to reintroduce mussels
Broken bricks, shattered large clay tiles and thin strips of lumber nailed into a crimped piece of sheet metal, sit piled down a county road in Hillsdale.
-
Natural Habitat: Meet 17-year-old Ben Cvengros, who has a knack for capturing wildlife — in particular, birds — on his camera
I would like to introduce you to a 17-year-old Parke County teenager who has an incredible level of patience. Ben Cvengros was 12 years old when he found his passion for photography.
-
WORD PLAY: Scrabble Club broadens Greene County youngsters’ vocabularies and experiences in a fun way
Drew Helton nodded his head like a wise college professor dispensing scholarly advice.
-
Doing a lot with a little: Family’s resourcefulness leads it to reuse vegetable oil as fuel
Up a winding driveway, tucked off a main road in Clay County, sits an average-looking house in a hardwood forest. The homeowners, Chris and Lori Hart, are two resourceful people.
-
Crossroads Rep opens with ‘You Can’t Take It With You’
The 2013 summer season for Crossroads Repertory Theatre at Indiana State University bears the theme, Three Laughs and A Scream. It opens June 21 with a comedy that has remained popular since it was first staged in 1936: “You Can’t Take It With You.”
-
‘Pirates’ to invade Terre Haute Children’s Museum on Saturday
The Terre Haute Community Band will perform “A Pirate Adventure: The Treasure of Music!” at 2 p.m. on Saturday at Terre Haute Children’s Museum.
-
Learn about ‘The Wabash in Legend and Lore’ at Symphony fundraiser
Hear Vigo County historian Mike McCormick speak on “The Wabash in Legend and Lore” during the Terre Haute Symphony League’s fundraiser at noon Wednesday in the Country Club of Terre Haute. Reservations are due Friday.
-
GRAPE SENSE: Some think Chardonnay is next big thing in northwest wine
Does the wine world need another great Chardonnay region? California has the great big buttery, woodsy Chards while Chablis brings the mineral and acid. There is virtually every style in between from regions across the globe.
-
TRIED ’N’ TRUE: A Bar-B-Que recipe from my brother, Mark
My brother Mark lives in California. He does a lot of cooking. Both of my brothers are great cooks. (I’m the oldest of all my siblings.) Mark gave me the Bar-B-Que recipe.
-
Concert to honor Indiana composers, arrangers
The Terre Haute Community Band kicks off its summer season with Indiana’s official state song, “On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away,” written by Terre Haute’s own Paul Dresser.
-
Water show kicks off Vigo library program
The Vigo County Public Library will stage its kickoff event for the summer reading program “Dig into Reading” with a water show from 3 to 4 p.m. on Monday on Walnut Street in downtown Terre Haute.
-
BRUCE’S HISTORY LESSONS: This week in 1944: D-Day and the Airborne assault on Normandy
This week (June 5) in 1944, with the D-Day invasion of the Nazi-occupied Normandy coast set to begin, the man in charge of that invasion, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, paid a special visit to members of the U.S. 82nd and the 101st Airborne.
-
All Valley artists encouraged to submit art at Vigo County Fair
Artists from throughout the Wabash Valley are encouraged to submit works to the 84th Vigo County Fair, which will take place July 7-15 at the Wabash Valley Fairgrounds.
-
YOUR GREEN VALLEY: Recycling initiative in full swing at Vigo County Public Library
The Vigo County Public Library has recycled the weight of two compact cars (7,000 pounds) since April, this after an employees’ initiative to recycle library-wide.
- More Features Headlines
-
Unusual Heat Wave Bakes Alaska
Fans Cheer Dramatic Heat Comeback
Raw: Car Jumps Curb in NYC, Injures 8
Tiger on Sergio: 'It's Time to Move On'
Raw: Massive Protests Fill Brazilian Streets
Hunt for Ex-Teamster Boss Hoffa's Remains Ends
Raw: Volcano Erupts Near Mexico City
Car Crash in NYC's East Village Injures 8
Raw: NASCAR Driver Jason Leffler Dies in Wreck
Ohio Woman Accuses 3 of Holding Her Captive
Raw: Arizona Wildfire Scorches 8 Square Miles
Obama Renews Call for Nuclear Reductions
Ex-NFL Star Chad Johnson Out of Jail
Aug. Trial Set for Ohio Man in Triple Kidnapping
Hoffa Mystery Still Fascinates After 4 Decades
Time Lapse: Rebuilding Bridge Post-collapse
Obama: 'Lives Have Been Saved' by NSA Programs
Failed Cuba-to-Florida Swimmer Won't Try Again
Rain Damages Brazil Soccer Stadium
Raw: German President Welcomes President Obama
James Gandolfini Dies at Age 51
Paula Deen Admits to Using N Word
Rihanna Hits Fan With Microphone
Men's Wearhouse Founder Fired
Miss Utah Explains Rambling Response
Exclusive: Locklear & Seymour Lock Lips
Miami Heat Wins in Overtime
Fists, chairs fly in restaurant brawl
Journalist Michael Hastings Dies in Fiery Hollywood Crash
Hairy Leg Stockings Aim to Deflect Male Attention
Inside Kim Kardashian's Premature Labor
Three Charged for Enslaving Mother and Daughter
Raw: Huge Fire Near Yosemite National Park
Spurs' Popovich has no problem with Spurs' intensity
RAW: NSA Director Says 50 Plots Foiled
Paige Butcher Scorches on Hawaii Beach
Video: worst way to load cargo onto a plane
Never-before-seen footage of '08 Times Square bomber
