24 THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
TRANSPORTATION
WEDNESDAY, JULY 21, 2004
BIODIESEL: University may join schools using new fuel
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matter that comes out of the exhaust and sulfur is a gas that contributes to greenhouse gases.
Richard Nelson, director of engineering extension programs at Kansas State University, said every percent of biodiesel mixed with petroleum diesel reflected the percent decrease of particulate and sulfur pollutants. For example, a 20 percent biodiesel mixture would decrease the pollutant by 20 percent. Biodiesel is available from a two percent mixture up to 100 percent.
Nelson travels around the area giving presentations about biodiesel for the National Biodiesel Board, but said he had not presented his information to the University but welcomed an invitation to come and explain the alternate fuel.
The University also wants to know if biodiesel can work in any diesel-burning engine.
FUEL-EFFICIENT COLLEGES
Hupe and Nelson said biodiesel would work in any diesel engine without any modifications.
Nelson said that at the beginning fuel filters may clog up and have to be replaced frequently because the biodiesel was a cleaner burning fuel and would break up some "gunk" that
Recognized schools that use biodiesel on campus:
University of Colorado: campus buses and trash trucks
Purdue University: buses, fire trucks, dump trucks and other vehicles
- Harvard University: buses and mail, solid waste, recycling and maintenance trucks
University of Minnesota: trucks
Source: www.nbb.org
Duke University: buses and other vehicles
Kansas State University: equipment on research farm
may have been stuck in the engine. The vehicle can actually run longer without changing its fuel filter after using the fuel for a while, he said.
Thirty universities and colleges across the United States use biodiesel. The schools' uses range from landscaping equipment to buses.
Only four universities use 100 percent biodiesel.
The majority of the schools use a 20 percent mixture.
The University of Colorado switched
to biodiesel in April 2003. The university started a pilot bus on 100 percent biodiesel and later switched to 20 percent biodiesel because the 100 percent mixture would gel up in the cold weather.
Bryan Flansburg, director of transportation at the University of Colorado, said there had not been a problem since the switch to the 20 percent mixture except for cost.
The students passed a referendum that increased student fees to absorb some of the extra cost.
For every percent of biodiesel mixture the cost goes up about one cent, he said.
A 20 percent mixture would roughly be 20 cents more expensive than petroleum diesel.
The University is researching what mixture would be best for what types of equipment and has not made a decision, Long said.
"The information we've needed has developed to a point that the University is engaged in a study of the potential use of these fuels," he said.
Timothy Akright, student senate KU on Wheels transportation coordinator, and other KU on Wheels representatives were not available for comment.
— Edited by Amanda O'Toole
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