It looks like some students at the University of Central Florida have been able to cultivate their own source of clean energy.

Not only have they found a cheaper way to power their vehicles, but they are also providing a great example of how free-market ingenuity (not regulation) will be the driving force for environmental change.

From WESH.com in Orlando, FL:

“With the fuel prices increasing so high, it makes you notice how much you’re spending on fuel,” UCF student Chad Heinrich said.

They needed an idea. The mechanical engineering students cooked up a recipe by looking no farther than the University of Central Florida Chick-fil-A.

They have been draining smelly fryer grease and feeding it to their bio-diesel reactor — a fancy name for a water heater, some pipes, valves, hoses, and filters that turn grease and two household chemicals into fuel. The newly formed fuel powers their diesel engine cars.

“To make a gallon of bio-diesel, it’s about 80 cents,” UCF student Michael Schulist said.

This is a simple concept, with free-market principles in place, the consumer, not the government determines what products are needed and businesses respond by providing the desired service and/or product.

In this case, gas prices are high, people want something cheaper and these guys found a way to make that happen.

While I know that this isn’t the first time that people have used grease as a form of clean-energy, I have a feeling that with gas prices so high, others are going to see how they can start using similar sources of fuel.

From a competition standpoint, the savings that these two are seeing might lead to someone else thinking of an unwanted item that can also be converted into a clean burning fuel for an even lower cost.

Either way, all of this can be done without the government telling companies and individuals what has to be done and how they need to do it.

Of course, it should be no surprise the even when it comes to new fuels that could save taxpayers money and also benefit the environment, the government still wants to make sure they get something out of it:

They’re flying under the radar because they’re not paying fuel taxes.

Fuel taxes pay to build and maintain roads.

Florida law demands 29 cents per gallon of homemade fuel, but few pay it, intentionally or because they don’t know the rules.

“I think if they made it perhaps simpler and more straight-forward on how to pay taxes and lowered the taxes, it would encourage more people to do it legitimately,” Williams said.

No surprise.