Recently, there has been much talk on campus about biodiesel. Instead of continuing to lose my voice, I thought I’d shout through The Poly this week. For those who haven’t heard, an idea to use waste vegetable oil (WVO) from campus food fryers was first proposed as a student research project, but “disappeared” due to lack of continued student advocacy and insufficient funding for the required facilities retrofit. A renewed effort, however, is now taking place as part of a campus-wide sustainability initiative.
So, what exactly is biodiesel, you ask? How do you make it, how much does it cost, and what does a working process facility look like? There are various feed stocks for the biodiesel process. While soybean, sunflower, and palm oil can be used from the crushed plant directly, it is also possible to convert WVO from food fryers. There is an added benefit to processing biodiesel using the latter technique, as it takes a waste substance t`o replace fossil fuel as an end product. It is estimated that about 70–80 percent of the carbon dioxide emissions associated with running a vehicle on diesel are offset by WVO processed biodiesel. An operational biodiesel program would provide long-term cost savings, a secure energy source for campus vehicles, reduced carbon emissions and food waste, and even more importantly, educational research and extracurricular activities for students.
These are all topics an interested group on campus is readdressing. Last Thursday, we held our first meeting to discuss reviving the biodiesel effort on campus. The Student Senate and the Student Sustainability Task Force are leading the biodiesel effort, along with the much-appreciated help and guidance of the Center for Future Energy Systems.
The proposed process to convert the WVO is a “transesterification process in which sodium hydroxide is dissolved in methanol and then mixed with waste vegetable oil to produce biodiesel and glycerol” according to Campus Biodiesel Project: Design Report of September 1, 2006. This same report outlines the current state of the project (as of 2006), describing the entire chemical process step-by-step, providing a list of parts purchased for the project, and even delineating Blaw Knox 101 as the allocated space for the project.
So, what is the real holdup here? As long as Sodexo continues to serve fried foods on campus and college students continue eating them, we’ll be sure to get to class on time in the shuttles, regardless of how costly diesel fuels may become. We could avoid all the economic volatility in the fossil fuel markets by reprocessing campus waste. Indeed, energy security is part of Rensselaer’s broad energy plan, yet this biodiesel plan needs a push if it is to stand out and be implemented.
Biodiesel is something RPI should get involved in, for more reasons than have been listed here, and we need your help and support to make it a reality. If you are interested in helping with this project, regardless of your expertise or capacity, please e-mail me at cohenb2@rpi.edu or Lee Sharma ’12 at sharma5@rpi.edu.
Editor’s Note: “Sustainability: Inside Scoop” and “Sustainability: Outside Scoop” are columns granted to the Student Sustainability Task Force by the Editorial Board to discuss issues of sustainability on the Rensselaer campus and around the nation.
