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LIPODIESAL

Beverly Hills plastic surgeon Dr. Bittner took things a bit too far when he admitted to running his Ford SUV and his girlfriend's Lincoln Navigator on his patients' fat, reports Forbes.

"The vast majority of my patients request that I use their fat for fuel--and I have more fat than I can use," Bittner wrote on his (now removed) site, lipodiesel.com.

His actions far from impressed authorities, who began an investigation into his practice. He later left the country to take up volunteer work in Brazil.

DRIVING ON ALCOHOL

You should never drink alcohol and drive, but what about drive on alcohol power?

In 2007, Sweden seized 185,000 gallons of alcohol, heated and converted it into biogas, and used it to power buses, trucks and a biogas train.

According to the Associated Press, customs spokeswoman Ingrid Jerlebrink said, "We used to just pour it down the drain, but because of the increased volumes we had to look around for new solutions."

THE POWER OF CHOCOLATE

The New York Times reported in 2009 on a car that ran in part on biodiesel from chocolate waste.

A team from the Warwick Innovative Manufacturing Research Center said it had built a Formula 3 car which ran not just on chocolate, but also featured car components made out of carrots, potato starch and flax fiber.

Leader James Meredith said his goal was "to show what is possible. People love motor racing, and the trick is to do it in a more environmentally responsible manner. A racing car doesn't have to harm the planet."

GOURMET BIOFUEL

French farmers are turning to the ultimate gastronomic-inspired fuel by running a few of their vehicles on duck fat, reports Reuters.

The Dordogne-based farmers collect the duck fat from nearby restaurants and culinary businesses every two weeks. Other animal fat from pigs and cattle are added to the duck-like soup, which is then mixed in a 30 to 70 percent ratio with diesel.

The jury is out on the ethics behind using animals for energy.

POWER DIAPERS

Since diapers hit the market in the 1940's, they've produced heaps of landwaste.

But now, a Japanese firm might have come up with a solution by developing a new machine that converts adult diapers into biofuel.

It takes only one day for this machine to process the diapers into compressed form, which can then be used in biomass gasifiers to generate energy, reports CNET.