I saw an article in my RSS reader yesterday that my alma mater, Mount Vernon Nazarene University is going a little bit more green. They're using waste cooking oli from the cafeteria to generate bio-diesel to power maintenance equipment and buses. Their school colors are blue and green (which I love) and now it looks like the green is a little bit greener.
After procuring methanol and lye, a test batch was ?brewed.? On Dr. Daniel Martin?s snowy presidential inauguration day in November, a 50/50 mix of bio and regular diesel fueled one of the university?s sidewalk snow plows. Since then, mixtures have reached 100 percent biodiesel, with every test successful. Taylor is now a believer and thinks that a number of local restaurants would appreciate free disposal of WVO as well. With daily production of 90 gallons possible, the potential is significant. Glycerin is the only waste product produced during the process and it is currently being mixed with mulch and leaves and used as a grass fertilizer, though it could be sold at some point to certain manufacturers.
A hearty kudos to my school and what they're doing to help reduce their waste footprint on the Earth. My school has an absolutely beautiful campus, it's great to see them doing things to keep their own campus beautiful while improving the rest of the world as well.
Mount Vernon Nazarene University - News biodiesel waste vegetable oil WVO fuel environment green