Student converts cooking waste oil to fuel vehicles

In January 2009, a fifth-year University of Rhode Island student, Mike Bailey along with chemistry professors Brett Lucht and Brenton DeBouf launched a pilot program where they collected cooking waste oil from the dining halls and made 20 gallons of biodiesel fuel per-week.

Bailey said the process was a one to one reaction where 20 gallons of cooking waste oil made 20 gallons of biodiesel fuel.

He said that although it's a registered fuel, he thinks it's not used as often as diesel because not as many people know about it.

Bailey said biodiesel fuel is generally less expensive than diesel fuel, is less toxic and allows for a cleaner environment. It's better for a vehicle's engine, and doesn't smell like diesel he added.

University trucks across campus were being fueled with Bailey's biodiesel for about a year until the university felt the pilot program wasn't feasible.

Bailey along with another student he was working with had difficulty converting the fuel in a timely fashion. He said it was difficult for them to balance their classwork with the work in the lab. The two tried to continue the program in the summer, but there wasn't enough cooking oil being used on campus because students were gone for the summer.

The URI President's Council on Sustainability, on which Bailey is an undergraduate representative, has suggested sending URI's cooking waste oil to a company where it will be converted and sent back to the university to fuel its trucks.

Bailey now works for Newport Biodiesel where he converts waste oil on a larger scale. The company collects cooking waste oil from surrounding restaurants and supplies biodiesel for all of Rhode Island and makes 2,300 gallons of biodiesel per day as compared to the 20 gallons URI was making per week. The company's biodiesel fuel is used for heating homes and transportation and as an employee Bailey said he gets free biodiesel fuel for his vehicle.

The North Providence, R.I. native said he will graduate in December and hopes to continue working for Newport Biodiesel in years to come.

"I tell people [to] eat more French fries so I can get more oil," Bailey said.

Noelle Myers

Issue date: 10/20/10

Retrived from: Ramcigar