Encouraging Students To Eat French Fries? Lessons Learned From Student Sustainability Projects

George Mason University (GMU) is one of approximately 500 universities that have endorsed the American College and University Presidents' Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) which promises to reduce carbon emissions. As a part of this challenge, GMU is undertaking many steps to decrease its footprint including the production and use of biodiesel. As a student engineering project, biodiesel generation on the Fairfax, VA campus was investigated. Biodiesel is an alternative fuel source that has environmental benefits; most notably vegetable-based biodiesel reduces unburned hydrocarbons by 67%, carbon monoxide by 48% and particulate matter by 47% as compared with petroleum-based diesel. These environmental benefits fueled student exploration of the possibility of producing biodiesel from waste cooking oil. The process to generate biodiesel results in a fuel price per gallon that is significantly lower than conventional diesel in the current market. This per gallon savings contributes to a short capital cost payback period for biodiesel installation. Student calculations showed annual savings in the range of $13,000 with an estimated payback of around two months. If the development of biodiesel on campus was purely an economic or environmental issue, the decision would be simple. Unfortunately, the production and use of biodiesel is accompanied by many obstacles that are often overlooked by students. Some of these obstacles are legitimate concerns while others represent simple misconceptions. Safety considerations from the handling of hazardous materials, Federal and State regulations, outsourcing alternatives for biodiesel processing equipment, personnel resource limitations, vehicle maintenance concerns, selecting and locating an appropriate facility to house the system, and numerous other concerns were encountered in the student project. These topics are often presented in the classroom but not fully appreciated by students until they face them as real obstacles to a successful project completion. This paper explores the learning opportunities presented by the GMU biodiesel project including an improved understanding of adoption barriers of innovative sustainable solutions and the difficulties in obtaining reliable engineering data for analysis of new technologies.