Team of OSU students brews up a batch.
BY
M ELISSA B EARNS
D
eep in the bowels of OSU’s chem-
istry building under the glare of
fluorescent lights, the reactor
motor hummed softly from inside its veil of
clear plastic, wood and metal. Big blue water
cooler bottles filled with a sludgy looking
black liquid surrounded the machine.
Brothers Kevin and Pat Marnell, Nick
Winlund and Ryan Hodges stood back sur-
veying their work. They didn’t seem to care
much about the environmental implications
of what they’re doing: creating a renewable
fuel source that might eventually free us
from our reliance on foreign oil. Sure, that’s
an added bonus. They all say part of their
interest in the project is that it’s environ-
mentally friendly. But most of them are
chemistry students, and as Hodges put it,
“I’m really just interested in the process of
turning grease into fuel.”
Along with about 30 other OSU students,
they’re part of the OSU Biodiesel Initiative.
The group received a $10,000 grant from the
EPA, and soon they’ll head to Washington,
D.C., to compete with other university stu-
dents for an additional $75,000.
Funding for the project comes from the
grant and the OSU Chemistry Department.
Local businesses and community members
have donated many of the supplies, includ-
ing the oil and grease. In earlier experiments,
the chemists used grease from local restau-
rants, including the Burger King on campus.
“Check this out,” Pat Marnell said, walk-
ing around to the back of the reactor and
pointing to a 55-gallon metal drum filled with
canola oil. On the top, written in black mark-
er, is the address to the OSU Biodiesel
Initiative. “Somebody addressed a steel drum
and mailed it to us!” David Hackleman, who
teaches chemical engineering at OSU and is
also the faculty advisor for the OSU
Biodiesel Initiative, later explained that a
local farmer who wanted to support the proj-
ect sent four full drums, or 220 gallons of
canola oil to the biodiesel team.
For months the project had been on
hold. Manufacturing biodiesel creates
fumes that are dangerous to breathe in high
concentrations. So the last step was build-
ing a fume hood, a structure that surrounds
the reactor with thick, flexible plastic walls.
A hole in the top connected to duct work
allows the fumes to escape.
Outside the fumes react with the humid-
ity in the air and break down into tiny
TODD COOPER
BATHTUB
BIODIESEL
droplets of alcohol and lye. This small-
scale operation creates little waste.
“Compared to a petroleum refinery, the
biodiesel process is incredibly benign,”
Hackleman said. Another byproduct of the
process is glycerin. “That’s a pretty valu-
able product,” Pat Marnell said. “We want
this whole process to be 100 percent sus-
tainable, so we’re look-
ing for ways to sell or
use [the glycerin].”
The students recently
finished constructing the
fume hood. Over spring
break, the Biodiesel
Initiative production team
brewed up their very first
batch of fuel. Starting with
25 gallons of oil, the team
produced about 18 gallons
of biodiesel. When they
perfect the process, Kevin
Marnell said, they expect
a one to one ratio: One
gallon of oil will produce
one gallon of biodiesel.
To make it, they mix lye
with methanol to make
sodium methoxide, then
mix that with the oil and let
it simmer. If they heated it,
speeding up the chemical
process, it would take about
an hour. “But it took us
about three days, because
we have to work [at jobs
and school],” Kevin
Marnell said.
Once this reactor is up
and running smoothly, the
next step is to build a bigger reactor capable of
producing about a tanker truck full of biodiesel
a week, about 4,000 gallons. Ultimately, the
team hopes to set up a distribution station and
start selling the fuel.
“This is an alternative fuel that can be
recycled yearly,” Kevin Marnell said. “It’s a
way out of the petroleum cycle.”
ew
Members of the OSU
Biodiesel Initiative’s
production team
stand behind their
biodiesel reactor.
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APRIL 21, 2005 13