An alternative-energy research project has evolved from modest diesel output to an ambitious, environmentally friendly and economic fuel-production dream for some Prince George High School teachers and students.
Randy Bullock and his students collect recycled cooking oil from the county's school cafeterias and surrounding businesses and process it into biodiesel fuel. "We're producing 120 gallons per week now," Bullock said. "We want to get this thing to where we're producing 300 gallons a day, so we can run buses with it. For that, I need $8,000 to get the processor I want."
With diesel prices hitting $4 a gallon, it would be a great relief for school fuel budgets, which are going up in fumes. Bullock's class produces the diesel for about $1 per gallon. Biodiesel, which has become a popular fuel alternative, is a non-toxic, renewable energy source produced mostly from soybeans, but it also can be processed from recycled oil such as Bullock's students are using.
The Prince George project won a state Career and Technical Education award for creative excellence last summer. Bullock said he doesn't know of any other school doing this in Virginia. The closest school that's doing something similar is a school in North Carolina, he said.
Bullock, a manufacturing and production systems teacher, said he is hoping to get more support from local businesses to get a larger processor and funding to build a facility for the production of biofuel. He even has picked a spot behind the school for the production facility. His students are planning fundraisers, he said.
So far, businesses have provided a lot of support, he said. One donated a water-heater tank, which his students modified into a processor. "Me and couple of other guys built the processor's pipe work," senior Luke Haddon said proudly. Other classes have pitched in on the project as well. Chuck Cimo's graphics communications class created a logo. Janet Carr's class created a Web site, and Lisa Schmieder's students learn about the chemical process of extracting diesel from the oil and make soap from the glycerin byproduct.
"(Students) get to learn about plumbing, electricity and, of course, chemistry," Bullock said. "We're learning all the time. We keep going on the Internet trying to see what the latest thing is."
Senior Philip Puh has been involved with the project since it started two years ago.
"It's great to know that I can take something that's so disgusting, somebody's waste, and make it into something that will benefit the economy in the long run," he said while agitating a mixture of ethanol methanol and lye before pouring it into the processor.
The biodiesel is being stockpiled in the school until enough is produced to start running one or two buses with it, Bullock said. Currently, one farmer is using it in his tractors. Other farmers have expressed interest in buying the fuel, Bullock said, and they might start selling it soon. Bullock also uses the fuel in his sport utility vehicle. For diesel engines newer than 1995, no modifications are necessary to switch to biodiesel fuel, Bullock said.
"Right away, when you turn it on," he said of his SUV, "all the valves and clattering noise that diesel makes goes away, because biofuel is a better lubricator than petro-diesel.
"There's no smoke," he said, standing close to the exhaust pipe. What's even better, Bullock said, the biodiesel fumes are aromatic, depending on what has been cooked in the oil. "If it's fried fish, it smells like fish."
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