Renewable Energy

Common Vision found early on that to help move the clean fuels movement forward sometimes you have to get a little dirty (actually greasy).  From 2001 until the present Common Vision has been a pioneer in the field of using recycled vegetable oil fuel.  We’ve come a long way from the time of hauling 5 gallon buckets of waste grease on bike trailers to the state-of-the-art automated filtration veggie systems that the Common Vision organic mechanics install in the fleet vehicles of our and collaborating projects.  In June 2006 Common Vision taught weeklong SVO conversion training in South Central LA.  > Learn more

Biodiesel, or tri-methyl-esters, is vegertable oil that has undergone a chemical reaction in order to reduce the viscocity. This chemical process involves mixing the vegetable oil with methanol and lie (NaOH) to seperate the vegetable oil molecule into glycerin and tri-methyl-esters. The glycerine is then removed and the remaining product is Biodiesel.

From 2001 -2003 all of Common Vision's vehicles had to brew their own fuel while on the road!  Every "fuel stop" involved an 12-24 hour adventure in gathering, reacting, settling, and filtering a new 40-100 gallon batch of fuel.  Common Vision used these opportunities to run community workshops on biodiesel brewing and Co-op organization. 

In 2002, Common Vision traveled 7,000 miles across America brewing over 1500 gallons of Biodiesel, teaching community workshops on how to brew Biodiesel from recycled vegetable oil. > Learn More

Common Vision uses the sun to power our offices while on tour.  A combined 2000 Watts of solar on the roofs of the busses provides Common Vision with good clean energy to spare.   Stay tuned for solar installation projects at schools and community centers.