- · A Change at the Bird Feeder
· Alternative Fuels
· Bioretention Basin
· Colleges Working to Reduce Energy Consumption
· Ecological Engineering
· Energy Efficiency Goes Beyond Doors and Windows
· Flexi-Pave
· From Wood Chips to Plastic
· Going Green with Lighting
· Green Roofs
· Heating Our Homes
· Indoor Contaminants
· Invasive Plant Species
· Low Emission Asphalt
· Nanocrystals
· New homes built with concern for water conservation
· Picking the Right Tree
· Plastic Versus Paper Bags
· Revitalizing Ontario, NY
· Sackets Harbor
· Safe Drinking Water
· Saving Heritage Trees
· Seaside Goldenrods Found in CNY
· Shrub Willow
· Solar Panels
· Teachers take part in research opportunities
· Using Wood Chips for Energy
· Wood Burning Technology
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Alternative Fuels
Going Green
Going Green: Alternative Fuels
This waste vegetable oil, once used to cook up French fries in Sadler Dining Hall, is heading for this former greenhouse on the campus of the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry where ESF senior, Greg Boyd, and his successors turn the waste cooking oil from Syracuse University into environmentally friendly biodiesel fuel.
The fryer oil in this 55 gallon drum is strained and pumped into the bioprocessor.
"We have an automated processor. We add the methanol and the sodium hydroxide in their own ports. The oil's in there," said Boyd. "We add sulfuric acid which is used to neutralize the free fatty acids which are produced from frying the oil. So we add all the components to the machine, turn it on and basically wait 24 hours and we have the biodiesel and the glycerol."
And ESF scientists have a use for the glycerol, in addition to the traditional uses like soap and make-up products ESF scientists are making biodegradable plastic. Seventeen percent of the ESF fleet of vehicles runs on a biodiesel mixture. Mostly B20, with the biodiesel stored here but that's changing with the arrival of two 3,000 gallon storage tanks this past winter.
"But, this will enable us to make more potent mixtures of biodiesel, you know higher and higher of biodiesel products," said Brian Boothroyd, Assistant Director of the Physical Plant.
Once we have filling stations like these in widespread use, that's when alternative fuels will really become a viable option.
