KANSAN.COM / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / TUESDAY, JANUARY 19, 2010 / NEWS
3A
CAMPUS
Weston White/KANSAN
The KU Biodiesel Initiative turns used cooking oil from campus dining facilities and local restaurants into environmentally-friendly biofuel. The initiative has expanded and worked with local businesses to create a discount card for students to help fund further research.
Campus biofuel lab goes from green to greener
BY BRENNA LONG blong@kansan.com
During the past few weeks, Don Claus helped build wooden platforms around the reactors in the University's biodiesel lab that will give students and faculty a bird's eye view of the biodiesel process.
The platforms will increase efficiency and safety during chemical add-in and fuel transfer for Claus, a senior from Salt Lake City, Utah, and the five other student volunteers who work with the KU Biodiesel Initiative, which is housed in Burt Hall. As of Dec. 12 the initiative had produced 1,874 gallons of usable fuel.
"Seeing the biodiesel come from the used cooking oil for the first time was the most exciting," Claus said.
The small-scale lab works yearround collecting used cooking oil from campus dining facilities such
as Mrs.E's and local businesses to produce biodiesel. The fuel produced goes at no cost to the landscaping department for equipment fuel and the maintenance shop on West Campus and
pus dining keeps the lab busy. But come summer, when on-campus dining slows, local businesses fill the cooking-oil gap.
Susan Williams, associate professor of chemical and petroleum engineering who works with the students on the biofuel initiative, said the arrangement between the initiative and local businesses benefits all parties.
Zarco 66,2005 W.Ninth St. sponsored the cost of producing the cards so all of its proceeds go directly to research.
"Businesses have to pay to have the oil removed," she said. "We aren't charging them to take it."
"In order for it to be economic, you have to use everything you make." Williams said.
"Businesses have to pay to have the oil removed. We aren't charging them to take it."
As the used cooking oil goes through the processes of heating, filtering and adding chemicals. Then the mixture settles in the second reactor leaving glycerin as
the city of Lawrence for heating.
With the added funds, the lab can focus on ways to increase the efficiency and decrease the waste of making biofuel from cooking oil.
To help fund the initiative and involve the community, the lab create a saver card that gives discounts at participating businesses. The card costs $5 and has unlimited use at participating stores until the card expires this November.
When classes are in session,
the supply of used oil from cam-
SUSAN WILLIAMS Professor of chemical engineering
a byproduct.
Claus said.
The lab studies different ways the glycerin could be used as dust abatement on roads or as a solution for melting ice.
One of the biggest issues with producing biofuel is the amount of waste water generated through the processes, Claus said. On average, it takes 30 gallons of water to make 35 to 40 gallons of biodiesel, he said.
As a way to combat this issue, the lab is investigating ways to conserve water from the third rinse cycle — the cleanest waste water resulting from the process.
"If we can reuse the water from the third rinse, we could save 10 gallons on every third rinse we do." Sean Reskey, a junior from Paola
Businesses participating in the biofuel saver card include:
GTM Sportswear, 1008 W.23rd St.
Rudy's Pizzeria, 704 Massachusetts St.
Godfather's Pizza, 721 Wakarusa Dr.
Local Burger, 714 Vermont St.
These businesses won't have their name listed on the card, but they will post a sticker in their window to alert customers of their participation in the program.
and member of the initiative, said.
The new engineering building coming in spring 2012 will expand the research and production of the initiative. The goal is to take the process to a company to use, Williams said.
"There is supposed to be a whole floor for research in the new building." Williams said. "It would have a lab for large-scale production and faster testing."
Other schools in the Big 12 are also working on different areas of alternative fuel. At the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the research focuses on ethanol.
"We have many full operations in the area," Kenneth Cassman, director of Nebraska Center for Energy Sciences Research, said. "If we want to do research, we collaborate with the ethanol plant directly and use real data."
At the University of Oklahoma, researchers work with switch grass and algae and only use the biofuel production for research purposes. Daniel Resasco, professor of chemical, biological and materials engineering, said.
— Edited by Anna Archibald
Texas family murdered by gunman
CRIME
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Police said Monday the victims of the weekend bloodshed all lived in the single-story brick home in Bellville, a town of about 4,000 people located 55 miles northwest of Houston. They included a retiree and his wife, a younger woman and man, and a girl believed to be about 3 years old, police said.
BELLVILLE, Texas — Authorities working to determine what spurred a flurry of gunshots that left five people dead in southeast Texas are questioning a 20-year-old relative who lived with the victims in the isolated house surrounded by pasture land.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Investigators were questioning a 20-year-old man, whom a relative said is a son of the wife. He
Crime scene tape surrounds a residence where five family members were found slain Sunday Jan. 17 in Belville, Texas. Crime scene technicians were on location collecting evidence Jan. 18.
remained jailed on burglary and attempted burglary charges after allegedly trying to break into a Belleville home.
The man — arrested about 3 a.m.
Sunday after a homeowner pulled a gun on him — could face capital murder charges. Prosecutors are reviewing the case. No one else is being sought for charges.
Red Lyon Tavern
A touch of Irish in downtown Lawrence 944 Massachusetts 832-8228
Red Lyon Tavern
Q&A (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
Ransal: How did you end up in the Midwest?
Pauwels: "By the time I was about 30, there weren't a lot of brewing jobs in Belgium, but there were brewing jobs opened in the U.S. In the 90s craft brewing was booming in the U.S. and John McDonald [founder and president of Boulevard Brewing] was looking for somebody. I didn't even know what Kansas City was. I thought I was going to see cowboys and tumbleweeds, but I was very surprised and people are really, really nice."
Kansan: How did you end up in the Midwest?
Kansan: How is the beer in the Midwest different than in Belgium?
Pauwels: "It's totally different. The craft beer movement initially started copying English beer because they speak the same language, then German beer, and now finally Belgium beers, which are a little more complex."
Pauwels: "Our research and development in the brewery and all breweries sit around the table, get a bunch of beer, taste it all, write down what we like and then we come up with ideas. Then in our case we can turn it around in three to four months."
Kansan: How long does it take for a beer to become an idea to being on the store shelves?
Pauwels: "Beer is meant to be enjoyed. I don't think Boulevard is in the alcohol business. We are in the flavor making business. We're not in the industry to just chug beers down. There is something wrong about this whole aspect. Just enjoy things in life. Don't get completely hammered. It doesn't make any sense."
Kansan: Many college students try to drink as many cans of Natural Light as fast as they can. What is the proper way to drink a beer?
Pauwels: "I don't like to imitate. I like innovate. The reason why is because I have too much respect for brewers making these beers."
Kansan: Have you ever tasted a beer and
Kansan: What is the most you've ever drank?
Pauwels:"I think sometimes I've drank a bottle of Smokestack [750 ml] by myself. That's about the max I go."
Steven Pauwels, 42, of Eeklo, Belgium. Pauwels is brewmaster for Boulevard Brewing Co.
U.N. wants more troops to aid Haiti
tried to imitate it, or do you come up with new ideas?
HAITI
UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. mission in Haiti wants 2,000 additional troops and 1,500 extra police to provide military escorts for aid convoys and ensure that desperately needed food and water is distributed to earthquake victims without any violence, U.N. officials said Monday.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Security Council must lift the current ceiling for the force, and U.S. deputy ambassador Alejandro Wolff said he expects a
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the Security Council the U.N. needs to strengthen its current Haiti force, which has 7,000 military peacekeepers and 2,100 international police, to deal with the increasing demands on the world body following last week's earthquake.
"We are stretched," he told reporters, saying the U.N. World Food Program alone is bringing in 60,000 tons of food quickly which must get to over 200 distribution points.
U. S.-draft resolution to be unanimously approved on Tuesday.
Le Roy said the U.N. also needs extra troops to secure the routes the convoy will be using, and for "a reserve force" in case the security situation deteriorates further.
The neighboring Dominican Republic has already offered an 800-strong battalion which will deploy later this week to secure the road from Port-au-Prince to the Dominican border, the only
U. N. peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy said the extra soldiers are essential because of the "tremendous" number of requests to escort humanitarian convoys.
France's U.N. Ambassador, Gerard Araud said European Union foreign ministers agreed Monday to send an unspecified number of police.
land bridge outside the battered country, he said.
"We have to act very quickly and very strongly," Araud said.
Le Roy cited the often unruly crowds at points where food and water is being distributed. He said the extra U.N. police officers will also help the Haitian police who are returning to the streets in "limited numbers."
Le Roy said, the U.N. will also be seeking forensic experts and about 100 additional corrections officers to establish detention facilities once Haitian police arrest some of the 4,000 prisoners who escaped from the main prison in Port-au-Prince when it collapsed.
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