From french fryer to the engine

In New York, a 900-pound butter sculpture from the state fair was turned into fuel for campus vehicles

DAYTON (AP) — Forgive the students at Sinclair Community College if they get hungry when the tractors that cut grass, blow leaves and sweep snow on the campus motor by.

Cooking oil that once browned french fries and onion rings is being used to power the vehicles.

Students have begun making biodiesel fuel by converting waste cooking oil from the dining hall. It saves the school a little money on gasoline, gives the students lessons in engineering and chemistry, and pulls oil out of the waste stream.

“It ends up as a product that is more friendly to the environment. And we’re teaching with it,” said Woody Woodruff, the director of facilities at the 65-acre urban campus.

Sinclair is among the latest colleges around the country making their own biodiesel fuel. The concept is growing in popularity, driven by greater environmental awareness among students.

Estimated U.S. sales of biodiesel have jumped from 75 million gallons in 2005 to 450 million gallons in 2007 to 700 million gallons last year.

The State University of New York melted down a 900-pound butter sculpture from the state fair to help power campus vehicles. Biodiesel currently accounts for about 8 percent of the fuel used on campus.

Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pa., produces 50 to 150 gallons of biodiesel each week to power campus lawn mowers, a garbage truck and farm equipment. Its biodiesel byproducts are being used in a composting research project at the school’s organic farm and have been used to make soap that was sold in the campus bookstore. The school has more than doubled its capacity of biodiesel, growing from 20-gallon to 54-gallon batches.

At the University of Kansas, biodiesel is used to fuel lawn mowers, backhoes, front-end loaders and other construction equipment. It is also used as a solvent to clean parts and tools and to heat a motor-pool building.

When the university began making biodiesel in September 2007, two people were involved. Now there are 25.

“They feel they can be active on campus and involved in something they believe in,” said Susan Williams, director of the project. “It’s really a big source of pride.”

Neil Steiner, an architectural engineering student, volunteered to work for the school’s biodiesel project last year and is now a paid lab worker.

“I’m really into green buildings, and it was the greenest thing I could get my hands on,” said Steiner, 22, of Tulsa, Okla. “Biodiesel can be an unlimited resource. This has definitely made me more environmentally aware.”

Sinclair’s program has doubled from 15 students to 30 in just two months.

Most colleges make biodiesel by chemically converting it from used cooking oil from campus dining halls.

Dining facilities are major leaders for colleges on environmental initiatives, said Gail Campana, spokeswoman for The National Association of College & University Food Services.

When a question was posted in November on the association’s online discussion board asking what dining halls were doing with their waste fryer oil, the board was quickly flooded with responses. Schools said they were either using the oil to make biodiesel or selling it to companies for that purpose.

“They came in so thick and fast that I realized this was just the tip of the iceberg,” Campana said. “This is something that’s moving fast.”

Sinclair produces the biodiesel by using pumps, heaters, a 60-gallon reaction tank and another tank filled with chemicals. The cooking oil is mixed with chemicals, heated up and filtered.

The students turn out two batches of biodiesel a week and as of December had produced about 100 gallons. With the price of diesel fuel hovering around $2.50 a gallon and the cost of making biodiesel $1 a gallon, the students saved the school a modest $150.

“It’s a gesture,” said Bob Gilbert, head of Sinclair’s center for energy education. “Our first goal is education.”

Sam Spofforth, executive director of Clean Fuels Ohio, a statewide group that promotes the use of renewable fuels, said the interest in biofuels among college students should create a pipeline of talent and energy for commercial biodiesel production.

“They realize this is the wave of the future,” Spofforth said. “There is going to be a tremendous need for educated people to move into these industries.”

Steiner estimates he spends 20 hours a week on the University of Kansas biodiesel project and is able to work on it between classes. He hopes to use his experience after he graduates, perhaps as a consultant helping biodiesel companies obtain materials and funding.

“We make it, we test it, and we distribute it to different places on campus,” he said. “We really get our hands on all of it. It really puts you in a practical situation.”