Biodiesel Initiative

Transcript

Used cooking oil is being re-made into biofuel that's renewable and domestically produced.

From the University of Kansas, this is Research Matters. I'm Brendan Lynch.

Researchers at K-U are transforming vegetable oil into fuel to power a diesel engine, called biodiesel. Susan Williams, Associate Professor of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, says the K-U Biodiesel Initiative cuts reliance on foreign oil.

Susan Williams: "There has to be things that we look at for alternatives to petroleum-based fuel and even to ethanol. And I think biodiesel is one of the ways that we can really make an impact. That is the idea of actually looking at growing the feedstock, the plant that makes the oil, all the way though the production of the fuel, to using it in an engine, and then to testing the emissions and impact of what happens on the environment."

Every five days, reactors at K-U's new Biodiesel Research Lab produce 40 gallons of fuel. According to Williams, researchers can use the facility to improve techniques for making the biodiesel.

Williams: "And we really wanted something that the students could actually be involved in, could learn from, could watch, could modify, and then could try and incorporate their research into as an educational tool."

Williams says the program also should help boost biodiesel production regionally by offering low-cost testing to small-batch refiners.

Williams: "So it really is cost prohibitive for anybody who’s a small scale producer to test on their own to make sure that their making high quality fuel -- and by that I mean do a full test of the 19 different properties that are regulated in terms of biodiesel. So for us to be able to have this on campus, to have the expertise on campus, to have a technician to be able to run that facility, and to be able to provide that as really an outreach for the state, is something that we see as very important being that we are a state institution."

What's more, a biodiesel boom should lift farmers and ranchers, says Williams.

Williams: "You know, from a soybean perspective, there’s a lot of soybean farmers in the state of Kansas, and the ability to make biodiesel from tallow, and the fact that we have a lot of meatpacking industry in the state of Kansas, and just the fact the ethanol from corn is probably not something that’s going to be sustainable in the state of Kansas."

For more on this biodiesel initiative, log onto Research Matters DOT K-U DOT E-D-U. From the University of Kansas, I'm Brendan Lynch.

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