The oil to power the van is from fast-food restaurants and stored in a trailer hitched to the back of the van that can hold up to 150 gallons of fuel. In Canada, the project is sponsored by New York Fries. (Omar Dabaghi-Pacheco/CBC)A young B.C. couple drove into Ottawa in a van powered by French fry oil Wednesday as part of what they hope will be a Guinness record-breaking journey to raise awareness about alternative fuels and sustainable living.

Tyson Jerry, 26, and Cloe Whittaker, 24, visited Ottawa's Brookfield and St. Patrick high schools in their imported Japanese van to talk to students about how they can live a greener lifestyle.

The couple has journeyed 42,000 kilometres since leaving Vancouver on Oct. 1, 2008. So far they have burned 12,000 litres of used vegetable oil from fast-food chains as fuel. In the process, they believe they have broken the Guinness world record for the longest journey made by a car using alternative fuels, which was previously 38,000 kilometres.

But Whittaker said that's not really the point of their project, dubbed Driven to Sustain.

"The record is actually a byproduct of what we're doing," she said. "We're travelling and talking to students about sustainability."

On Wednesday, they chatted with Ottawa teens about alternative fuels and simple lifestyle changes like taking shorter showers and avoiding disposable coffee cups.

'Smells like a strange barbecue'

The students gathered around to examine the van, which has a huge roof rack, big flood lights and a steering wheel on the right side of the vehicle. It's hitched to a trailer that can hold up to 150 gallons of fuel.

Tyson Jerry and Cloe Whittaker have visited more than 50 schools and covered 42,000 kilometres on their journey. (CBC)Whittaker and Jerry have visited about 50 schools across North America so far, and students' top question is always what the van smells like.

"It smells like a strange barbecue, for sure," Whittaker said.

Brookfield student Stephanie Brousseau said she liked Whittaker and Jerry's can-do attitude.

"They're not just coming in and blabbing about sustainability and what we're doing wrong," Brousseau said. "They're actually telling us what we can do right, and they show us an example."

Jerry acknowledged that fuelling vehicles with vegetable oil won't be practical on a large scale and won't solve the world's fuel problems.

"This is just a symbol of alternatives you can use in your lifestyle," he said.

Any diesel car can use vegetable oil

While Jerry's own van is strange-looking, vegetable oil is actually a fuel that can be used in any vehicle that runs on diesel in the summertime, he said. No engine modifications are required, although the oil does need to be filtered first to remove food particles. In the winter, the oil also needs to be pre-heated.

In Canada, Jerry and Whittaker are sponsored by New York Fries, which provides used French fry oil. In the U.S., they get fuel mainly from other people who run their vehicles on vegetable oil.

The van has travelled all over the U.S. and is expected to log 3,000 more kilometres before returning to Vancouver in May.

Jerry was the one who came up with the idea of trying to break the record, and Whittaker agreed even though they had only known each other for three months.

Whittaker said she is pleased with what they have achieved but is looking forward to going back to Vancouver. There, the couple hope to write a book and maybe make a documentary about their journey.

At that point, they will also send their log books to the Guinness Book of World Records to confirm that they have officially broken a record. They expect to learn the result later this year.