Pancake fuel powers Vilnius buses

VILNIUS - Two buses in Vilnius are running on environmentally friendly fuel made from rape, a plant grown for the oil produced from its seeds.

Next year all Vilnius buses may soon be using this locally made fuel. But passengers complain it smells like baked pancakes.

"At the moment it's an experiment. If everything goes well, all our 220 buses will start to use this fuel," said Juozas Grabys, director for technical affairs at the company Vilnius Buses.

The fuel is being produced by the Plunges Grudai (Plunge Grain) company in the town of Plunge in the Western Lithuanian region of Zemaitija. "We hope that Plunges Grudai will increase their production of rape fuel from next year," Grabys continued.

The experiment began March 9. Grabys says that rape fuel produces about 2.5 times less pollution than regular fuel. "Vilnius is surrounded by hills and there are no strong winds in the city," he said. "So you can really feel the pollution here.

"It would be great if all cars in Lithuania could use this ecological fuel. It's common for buses in Germany. Rape fuel smells like pancakes. So what? Bakers don't complain that baking pancakes is unhealthy."

Those who would like to smell the pancake buses for themselves should look for routes 11 or 21.