First it was bacon cheeseburgers and bacon-wrapped hot dogs that took the nation by storm. That quickly evolved into bacon maple donuts, bacon ice cream, and dozens of other foods combining strange flavors with the deliciously fatty pork strips. The question is, are you ready for something new? Are you ready for the bacon-powered motorcycle?
It's no joke. Bacon and biking have now collided in a best-of-both worlds scenario. Well-known American food processor Hormel Foods, maker of the infamous SPAM precooked meat product, has teamed up with a biofuel company to create a B-100 biodiesel fuel capable of fueling a motorcycle on a run from Austin, Minnesota to San Diego.
The fuel has been created using grease collected from Hormel's Black Label Bacon plant in Rochelle, Illinois. Hormel says the conversion ratio from bacon grease to biodiesel is nearly one-to-one, making it a very cost-effective way to put what is normally a waste material to good use. Their custom motorcycle gets roughly 75 mpg at a cost of $3.50 per gallon of fuel. As for the ride from Minnesota to San Diego, it began on August 4.
The bike will slowly make its way to California in time for the International Bacon Film Festival. Along the way, the bike and its rider will be making stops for promotional purposes. The entire ride will be filmed by a crew accompanying the Bacon bike, and edited as the team travels. The goal is to make sure the finished film is ready to be presented at the festival in San Diego. Once the festival is complete, it is likely the motorcycle will return to Minnesota to be included in the SPAM Museum.
Cross Promotion
So what's the point of the bacon-powered motorcycle, you ask? It's really a cross promotion designed to benefit both Hormel and the maker of the biodiesel, Wisconsin-based Bio-Blend Fuels. It is also a way to promote the use of waste oils as fuel alternatives for the 21st-century. By demonstrating that bacon grease can be used as a biofuel for internal combustion engines, the companies hope to spur further discussion and investigation in the biofuel arena.
In addition to being cost-effective and easy to manufacture, biodiesel made from waste oil has the advantage of being environmentally friendly. It is nearly emission free, so it doesn't contribute to greenhouse gas accumulation or pollution. As an added bonus, making biodiesel out of bacon grease provides yet another reason for us to enjoy one of our favorite foods. It truly is the best of both worlds combined into one.
There's no word on whether or not the two companies plan to continue manufacturing the bacon-based fuel in the future. Perhaps they will if the motorcycle is well received on its historic run from Austin to San Diego. If you are one of the people along the route lucky enough to get out to see the bacon bike, we would like an answer to one question: does it smell good when it passes by?
