Transportation research to produce and test renewable fuels
Research at KU may help shift dependence on foreign oil to fry oil. Faculty members from the Transportation Research Institute are guiding a student project to produce biodiesel from sources such as corn, soybeans and waste vegetable oil, and then test its viability, power and emissions. There are even plans to eventually power buses on Mount Oread with biodiesel produced at KU.
The KU Biodiesel Initiative integrates research with refinement of biodiesel in the University's two new reactors, which can produce 40 gallons of biodiesel every five days. Researchers hope to be producing biodiesel from used vegetable oil within a few months.
"I think this research could lead to the modification of at least one of the buses here on campus (to run on biodiesel made from vegetable oil),” says Dennis Lane, associate director of the Transportation Research Institute and Distinguished Professor of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering. "But just because it may be running on vegetable oil doesn't mean we're all going to be smelling McDonald's French fries coming from the exhaust."
The Park and Ride buses, as well as the new KU On Wheels buses, run on a mixture of standard diesel and "B5," a blend of 5 percent biodiesel and 95 percent standard diesel. Susan Williams, associate professor of chemical and petroleum engineering, says the goal eventually is to be able to run buses on a blend of B100 biodiesel produced at KU. The buses' performance and emissions will be tested against those running on B5. Williams is heading the KU Biodiesel Initiative.
The program goes beyond what most universities have developed, since it approaches research and production of biodiesel "from feedstock to tailpipe." Read more.
