2D THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
OFF THE HILL
MONDAY, AUGUST 16, 2004
MONDAY, AUGUST 16.
Marty McFly appears bewildered as the DeLorean comes crashing around the corner of the street. Doc jumps out of the car and rushes to him screaming, "Marty you've got to come back with me. Back to the future." Doc shuffles over to a trashcan, flips open the lid and grabs banana peals and a can of beer, "I need fuel," Doc says, and stuffs his trash findings into Mr. Fusion, a home energy reactor that converts biodegradable products into car fuel. Doc back out of the driveway, the car rises up a few feet in the air and streams through time and space into the year 2015.
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This opening scene from Back to the Future Two implies that alternative fuels are a prevalent product in the future. As petroleum prices continue to post price costs, the future could be now. Natural fuel, or biodiesel, has existed for more than 100 years, and starting this fall, it holds the key in the ignition of the University of Kansas' KU on Wheels bus program. Following last semester's platform push by KU student body president, Steve Munch, Bellevue, Neb., junior, campus buses will harness the power of the bean and rid the streets of noxious, black gas with a more eco-friendly fume.
The fuel, biodiesel, named after converted soybean oil, is produced from domestic, infinite resources. It contains no petroleum but can be mixed with any level of petroleum to form a biodiesel blend — like the B20 blend running in KU buses, 20 percent biodiesel, 80 percent petroleum.
By the mid 1970s – during what would be called the American oil crisis – fuel shortages resulted in exorbitant gas prices and an everpresent concern about how Americans could affordably fill up their cars. Enter biodiesel, the alternative energy source made primarily in the agricultural sector. Petroleum continued to thrive through the shortfall of the 1970s with the help of increased government subsidies, and once again, biodiesel was relegated to the dowdy alternative fuel source, a neglected minority in the energy bazaar.
In 1993, immersed in national concerns about global climate changes and the decline in air and water purities, the National Biodiesel Board opened. The organization's purpose is to get biodiesel national play. Its official Website, biodiesel.org, reports that biodiesel use substantially reduces emissions of unburned hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and other noxious gases compared to diesel engines running on petroleum. The EPA's latest technical report says biodiesel emissions are 47 percent lower than overall
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Jayplay 8.19.04