While the numbers posted on gas station signs across the nation continue to outrage consumers, SIUC is taking a critical look at how renewable energy sources can be applied on campus.
One initiative seeks to transform used cooking oil, a substance that can be readily harvested from Student Center deep fryers, into a clean-burning biodiesel fuel that could be used to power campus vehicles and farm equipment.
Physical Plant Director Phil Gatton said he is one proponent of this idea. SIU currently runs the biodiesel mix E20, an ethanol blend, in some of their vehicles, Gatton said, but using a more pure form of the fuel is a possibility in the future.
Gatton said biodiesel might not be advantageous at the moment, as none of the vehicles are equipped with engines designed with the fuel in mind. The viscosity of the liquid creates problems with how it flows through the vehicles' systems, and biodiesel is subject to freeze in temperatures below 20 degrees. However, the modifications to the vehicles and fuel may have a lower price tag than continuing to use oil.
"Right now, we're looking at the economics and environmental issues involved," Gatton said. "It's a new process, and we're going to tread lightly."
Biodiesel is created in a specialized processor where oil and alcohol are heated together, which separates glycerin from the oil molecules and replaces it with alcohol. The resulting products of this process are a usable energy source, glycerol, and soapy water.
Out at the SIU farms, dairy foreman Chet Stuemke has already begun to make progress with the transformation. The farm has set up an apple seed processor, a homemade apparatus made out of a water heater, to create biodiesel.
Besides the fuel created, Stuemke said that the dairy farm might also be able to use the glycerol. It is a liquid starch, and the farm will be using it in animal feed. As early as next week, Stuemke hopes to be replacing 10 percent of the corn in its feed with the glycerol produced in the apple seed processor.
When and if the switch to biodiesel becomes more of a reality, a co-operative of organizations on campus hope to acquire several processors to increase the rate of production for the fuel.
"Everything depends on all the groups working together," Stuemke said.
The proposition of using biodiesel as a renewable energy source is being explored by many groups, including the Physical Plant, Dairy Farm, Student Center, and Student Environmental Center. Gatton said student housing is also interested in the fuel, and the possibility of using it to heat student-housing units at some point in the future.
Allison Huber can be reached at 536-3311 ext. 255 or achuber@siu.edu.
