Student initiative has brought about a plan to cut Ohio University's diesel costs in half while improving air quality and recycling.
The facility, currently in the design phase, is a place where workers would convert about 300 gallons of dining hall grease into 300 gallons of nontoxic biodiesel fuel each week. The fuel would be used for OU's
diesel vehicles.
If successful, OU will be the first university in the United States to recycle all of its waste grease on campus into biodiesel, said Dave Neace, a 23-year-old OU senior who helped initiate the project.
Any diesel vehicle can use biodiesel without changing any infrastructure.
If you want something that's going to make a difference now
biodiesel is the answer Neace said.
Pure biodiesel fuel reduces the emission of cancer-causing particulates by 70 to 90 percent. Converting waste grease into biodiesel costs between 70 cents and 80 cents per gallon - roughly half the price of regular diesel. There also would be extra savings of $100 a week that OU pays to ship away the grease for use in dog food, cosmetics and landfills, Neace said.
In addition, the facility would be used as a research center. Project leaders are looking into making heavy-duty degreaser from the glycerin that remains after production, said Andy Sinozich, project manager for Vestar, a company that implements energy-related technology for OU.
Neace and Kyle Brown, a recent OU graduate and former president of the OU Sustainable Living Organization, wanted to work on a project together that would combine conservation and biodiesel on campus.
Brown contacted the Voinovich Center for Leadership and Public Affairs at OU, and the center agreed to provide the startup costs for the project. He also spoke to Sherwood Wilson, associate vice president of Administration for Facilities & Auxiliaries, and Terry Conry, director of facilities management at OU. They decided to supply project oversight and the additional funds.
[The OU biodiesel project] is a perfect example of the contribution that one person can make Wilson said. Too many times we think that an individual can't make a difference.
-Students in two OU courses - sustainable applications: biodiesel in the fall and Gary Weckman's industrial manufacturing and systems engineering: systems design I this quarter -- have carried out most of those studies. One team from Weckman's course is working with the biodiesel facility and putting together the final design plans.
Facilities management approved the use of an abandoned blacksmith shop in Building 35 at the Ridges for the biodiesel facility. The facility should be under construction in the spring and running by late spring or early summer, Neace said.
We're hoping that the OU biodiesel program will be a model for other universities and institutions
he said.
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