Fueling the Future

Is it possible to kick our petroleum dependence? This is the question a group of students at the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU) asked themselves in October 2002. A team of engineering students learned about a promising vegetable-based fuel called biodiesel that can power any Diesel engine with no modification. Biodiesel can be made relatively easily in small quantities from either new or waste vegetable oil or animal fats. After learning more about biodiesel, the group realized the opportunity to implement biodiesel on campus and CU Biodiesel began. CU Biodiesel is the first student group in the country dedicated solely to reducing petroleum use through bio-fuels. Less than one year after their formation, CU Biodiesel has significantly lessened the environmental impacts of CU’s buses. This document outlines the steps CU Biodiesel took to take the University of Colorado on the road to petroleum independence.
 

Early Stages
CU Environmental Engineering student Andrew Azman first developed ideas about biodiesel after attending talks by biodiesel pioneer Joshua Tickell at various sustainability workshops in Colorado. Tickell’s book “From the Fryer to the Fuel Tank” advances the revolutionary idea that one can produce a cleaner burning fuel without a dependence on petroleum corporations.

An engineering projects class presented Azman and four other students with the opportunity to design a biodiesel processor. After a few weeks of researching online do-it-yourself biodiesel Web sites, the students began to design a small 60-gallon processor. Since no funding had been allocated for the processor, the group chose a design that required minimal money and resources. The idea of implementing biodiesel use on some scale at CU, pending the construction of the processor, began to emerge.

To gain general and financial support for their project, the students established contacts within CU and the Boulder community:

• Professors — Bernard Amadei, the engineering project’s instructor and founder of Engineers without Borders, supported the ideas and promoted the project to other professors.
• Environmental Center (E-Center) — As part of its Alternative Transportation program, the E-Center hired Cindy Rosenberg, a graduate student in Environmental Studies, to study the feasibility of implementing biodiesel at CU. Shortly after her research began, a partnership was established with the engineering students with the goal of implementing biodiesel on the CU campus within the academic year.
• Boulder Biodiesel Cooperative — In July 2002, 3 Boulder residents formed a cooperative organization to produce biodiesel fuel for their personal vehicles. The students were eager to work with the co-op because of their recent experience with biodiesel production.

After establishing contacts, the students recognized the opportunity to implement biodiesel on the CU campus. The idea of recycling all of the waste fryer grease on campus into biodiesel fuel became the goal. The group hoped the biodiesel could be used in a campus bus as a pilot study of the benefits and feasibility of producing and using biodiesel on campus.

To stay on track and keep good communications with all players in this project, bi-weekly meetings were set up for Andrew Azman, Director of CU Biodiesel Project; Cindy Rosenberg; Will Toor, Director of the E-Center; and Martin Stenflo, President of Boulder Biodiesel.
 

Early Funding
The students wrote up a proposal for the Engineering Excellence Fund (EEF) grant after consulting many professors and community members. A brief PowerPoint presentation was given to the EEF committee along with the proposal and budget summary. Within a month the EEF committee awarded the students a grant of $1000 for the project.

The students estimated that $1315 would be necessary to have a fully functioning biodiesel processor. CU Biodiesel reached out to more entities within the school and businesses both local and nationally to supplement the grant money. Funding and material sources for processor construction came from the following businesses and organizations:

• McLean Welding & Forge — Our Processor design called for technical welding and cutting beyond the scope of the students. Team members called welding shops around Boulder to see if anyone would donate their services. McLean Forge and Welding agreed to help with the plasma cutting and welding.
• McGuckins Hardware — After meeting with the promotional manager and presenting him with a modified version of the EEF grant proposal, he donated a significant gift certificate to their store for supplies.
• CU Environmental Center — The CU Environmental Center assisted with this project from the start and offered to help out financially with a small grant.Many other companies who made or distributed needed parts were contacted and most donated or gave discounts on their products.
   

Preparations for the Pilot Project
The first step in organizing for the pilot project was to decide which vehicle to power on biodiesel. The Buff Buses run regular loops from campus to off-campus dorms. These buses also run charter routes for field trips and other off-campus functions. CU Biodiesel felt that due to its high visibility and its use in highly congested areas on campus one of the Buff Buses could serve as a great pilot biodiesel bus.

In order to make the pilot project possible, CU Biodiesel needed to establish relations with and educate key campus staff.

• Transportation Services — CU Transportation Services is in charge of the entire CU Boulder campus fleet, including the buses that run loops from off-campus dorms. Together with Cindy Rosenberg, CU Biodiesel met with Transportation Director Bryan Flansburg to educate him about biodiesel and propose the idea of a pilot project. Flansburg immediately supported the pilot project but expressed concern about warranty issues with the buses. After another meeting the following week, Flansburg gave CU Biodiesel permission to power one bus with 100% biodiesel, contingent on finding funding to build the processor. The warranty issue was no longer a concern because the warranty on the chosen bus had already expired. Flansburg also offered CU Biodiesel space in the transportation garage to build the processor.
• Housing — The Housing department is in charge of all the dormitory dining halls. Theresa Stephens, Director of Food Services, granted CU Biodiesel permission to use the waste oil feedstock.
• UMC Food Services — UMC Food Services, located in the student center (UMC), was the other source for waste oil on campus. CU Biodiesel met with Robin Margolin, Food Services Manager, and she agreed to help with the project.
   

Planning The Pilot Project
With the processor under construction, the team needed to start thinking about how the pilot project would work. Two major tasks were performed: a resource survey was conducted to determine the biodiesel demand for the designated bus, and estimates were made of the amount of recoverable waste grease from campus cafeterias. The resources for biodiesel production were mapped out to determine an efficient plan to move the waste grease and the finished product.

CU Biodiesel team ran into a substantial obstacle in locating a production facility. The group was temporarily allowed to produce biodiesel in the transportation garage, which was by no means an optimal space. The students decided to write a proposal to get an on campus site for biodiesel production in the future, but would continue to use the garage until the project got off the ground.

Collection of waste grease and other materials was made easier due to the fact that all the waste grease on campus, with the exception of the UMC, was currently brought to one central location for disposal. Each cafeteria on campus would empty their fryer grease into the oil’s original 5-gallon container. This made pickup easier, eliminating the need for a truck and pump. Three months before the start of the pilot project, the Housing Department began to save their grease, and weekly grease pickups were scheduled. (Insert Picture of 5-gallon container pickup site)

Due to the relatively small quantities of biodiesel that were being produced, it was not efficient to get the chemicals from a chemical supplier. The students found a local racetrack to be the most efficient source of alcohol (methanol) which the racetrack uses as a fuel additive. A local soap maker, using similar chemicals to biodiesel, was chosen to supply the other chemicals (KOH/NaOH; the catalyst).

Biodiesel was produced twice a week for the month prior to the start of the pilot project. The Boulder Biodiesel Cooperative tested some of this biodiesel to ensure its quality. Enough biodiesel was stored prior to the pilot project to power the bus in case production technicalities arose.

A key goal of this pilot project was to keep it as simple as possible for the drivers. It was optimal to have biodiesel implementation with no changes to the refueling system. Due to the nature and funding for this pilot study, it was not possible to put the biodiesel at the buses’ regular pump station. Instead, the biodiesel was distributed in 55-gallon drums with an electrical drum pump on top. The driver would simply pull the bus in the garage, open the tank, and turn the pump on to fill up. (Insert Pic of Bus Driver filling up Buffy)
 

Introducing CU Biodiesel to the Community
A Web site was constructed from a simple template to spread CU Biodiesel’s message and provide more information about the pilot project to CU students and the community.

A biodiesel talk/workshop was help at the University of Colorado to gain the support of the community and school for the implementation of biodiesel. This event focused on the basics of biodiesel and its production, and was taught by Andrew Azman and Martin Stenflo. CU Biodiesel’s recently finished processor was on display at this event. This event educated over 60 people about the benefits of biodiesel fuel and introduced CU Biodiesel to many important people who would help them in the future.

To raise awareness of the biodiesel project and its implementation at CU, a naming contest was held. Students and the community were challenged to name and/or design a logo for the biodiesel pilot bus. The contest was announced on a campus wide email and in a local newspaper (ad #1, ad#2). The winner of this contest was to be announced at The CU Bicycle Bash Featuring Buff Bus Biodiesel.

The CU Bicycle Bash Featuring Buff Bus Biodiesel is an annual bike fair hosted by the CU Environmental Center. CU Biodiesel was invited to join in order to highlight another form of alternative transportation. This event was to serve as the formal inauguration of the biodiesel bus. The logo and name contest winner was also announced, giving the biodiesel bus its new name, “The Fried Ride”.

A press release was sent out before the event to attract media attention. The CU Engineering Schools Public Relations Coordinator, Carol Rowe, assisted with media relations.

At the CU Bicycle Bash Featuring Buff Bus Biodiesel, over one hundred people, including many representatives from the local press, witnessed the unveiling of the new logo of “The Fried Ride.” This event sparked many articles in local newspapers and journals.
 

Referenda
In order to ensure long term funding for CU Biodiesel, a referendum question was run in the University of Colorado student government (UCSU) elections. At the University of Colorado as in many other universities student groups can receive funding through student fees on a referenda ballot. To win funding in the election, the majority of all voting students and a minimum of 10 percent of the entire student population must vote yes for your question. This is usually a pretty difficult task due to lack of voter turn out (only 10-17 percent of the student population usually votes).

The following summarizes the steps CU Biodiesel took to win funding from the student body to implement biodiesel fuel at the University of Colorado:

1. What will funding be used for and how much? – The first step in running a referenda question was to brainstorm and determine what future projects would require funding and how much money was necessary. The group concluded that the successful implementation of biodiesel on campus would require funding for processor equipment, outreach education, office supplies and other smaller items. CU Biodiesel also researched previous referenda elections to see how much groups asked for in the past. By balancing CU Biodiesel’s calculated needs and past election funding trends, CU Biodiesel decided to ask for 49 cents per student per semester for four years.
2. Collect signatures to get on the ballot — One thousand signatures must be gathered for a referenda question to appear on the ballot. Twelve hundred signatures were collected to compensate for illegible writing. The signature process achieved a secondary goal of drawing student attention to biodiesel. Although CU Biodiesel only had a few active members they teamed up with other potential referenda groups and biodiesel allies on campus to gather the signatures.
3. Devise a question for the ballot — The ballot question took a lot of consideration. The question needed to be as clear and concise as possible so as to not confuse students unfamiliar with the UCSU system.
4. Form a coalition of referenda groups — The most important part of this campaign was to attract the maximum amount of students to the polls. The best way to do this was to work with all the other student groups on campus that were running on the referenda ballot.
   • Meetings were set up with the leaders of the seven other referenda groups to propose the formation of a coalition and to educate the groups about each others cause.
   • The coalition planned joint outreach events for the referenda week, shared ideas for campaigning, agreed to share volunteers for various “Get out the Vote” activities, and coordinated events to not conflict with other groups.
5. Establish relations with election commissioner — CU Biodiesel consulted the election commissioner and brainstormed ideas on how to increase voter turnout.
6. Greek Relations — Met with leaders of greek system in order to educate them about biodiesel. Encouraged them to share ideas on increasing greek voter turnout.
7. Fundraising — In order to run a successful campaign CU Biodiesel needed money!
   • Campus Green Vote donated $500 to the CU Biodiesel election campaign
   • CU Biodiesel contacted a local bar about holding a fundraiser there. This bar agreed to let them charge a cover in exchange for organizing a few bands to play for free. This gave the bar increased drink sales and allowed CU Biodiesel to raise over $1,400.
8. Organize Volunteers — Until this point, CU Biodiesel was a loose organization primarily lead by one individual, but the election and recent press showed many students the opportunity to get involved with CU Biodiesel. An e-mail was sent out to all campus groups and the CU Biodiesel e-mail list asking for volunteers for this campaign. A meeting was scheduled to inform volunteers about CU Biodiesel and to brainstorm on how to win this election. Volunteers were asked to sign up to work during blocks of time for referenda week. Over 30 volunteers participated for the election!
9. Letter to The Editor — All volunteers were asked to write a letter to the editor in order to let more people know about CU Biodiesel and the upcoming elections.
10. Promotional Material — In order to effectively get CU Biodiesel’s name out certain promotional materials were ordered.
    • T-Shirts — Bright yellow shirts with the CU Biodiesel logo
    • Stickers — VOTE YES CU BIODIESEL
    • Food — CU Biodiesel made a deal with Dining Services to hand out french fries all week. Over 250 lbs. of French fries were distributed.
    • Banners — Volunteers made banners and other promotional materials at prop making “parties”
11. Referenda week and the week before
• Compiled all events for referenda week and the prior week in a spreadsheet.
• Main event — A high profile daily event was held at a different high traffic area on campus, usually from 10am-2pm. Each day one of the referenda groups would sponsor and organize a large event where all other groups would campaign.
• Postering — Placing posters and flyers around campus played an integral part in getting out the vote.
• Class Raps — Each volunteer was asked to speak in front of their classes to announce the elections and tell a little about CU Biodiesel. This allows anyone in the class with questions about the elections or CU Biodiesel to have a person to answer them.
• Chalking — Using sidewalk chalk, the group wrote catchy and thought provoking phrases all over campus to inspire people to vote and learn more about CU Biodiesel. Other chalkings were simply: “Vote Yes CU Biodiesel, Powered by Grease” or “VOTE TODAY @ vote.Colorado.edu”.
• Dorm Storming — The main objective of dorm storming is to approach dorm residents when they are not busy and answer any questions they have about voting and inform them of the importance of voting. Most dorm residents have a computer in their room and are likely to vote after CU Biodiesel’s visit.
• Phone Banking — Each night CU Biodiesel volunteers called potential new volunteers in order to increase help for the next day. If these potential volunteers could not help the next day, they were asked to give a class rap or tell all their friends about the elections.

Referenda week began with a large pizza giveaway and inform elections. The “Fried Ride” was on campus to demonstrate the reality of the biodiesel campaign. Two to three volunteers were scheduled to campaign at any given time throughout the day, although the number often dwindled down to one. Events happened from 9am to 9pm every day of the.

CU BIODIESEL WON THE ELECTIONS! After many months of hard work and planning, CU Biodiesel won funding in the UCSU elections. The cooperative effort between all the referenda groups and the election commissioner proved a success, and with over 20% voter turnout, all the environmental referenda groups passed! CU Biodiesel received the largest voter percentage of any group in the elections — 83% of the student voters said YES to funding CU Biodiesel. The campaigning for this election not only provided CU Biodiesel with funding for the next four years, but also allowed them to educate the majority of the University students and faculty.
 

Post Election Biodiesel

• New Campus Vision — After the elections, CU Biodiesel wanted to progress biodiesel from its one demonstrational bus to a technology that would be implemented on a large scale at CU and within the local community. CU Transportation Director Bryan Flansburg and CU Biodiesel set the goal of powering all 13 campus buses on alternative fuels within a year. This fleet would include three compressed natural gas and 10 biodiesel buses.
• Production Space — CU Biodiesel solved the problem of production space by sharing warehouse space off campus with Boulder Biodiesel Cooperative. Boulder Biodiesel signed the lease on the warehouse and in exchange for rent, CU Biodiesel would allow Boulder Biodiesel use of their processor.
• Feasibility of large-scale production — Many factors had to be considered about supplying the entire campus with biodiesel, requiring substantial time and planning Producing more biodiesel would require a larger processor and processing facility, as well as hiring more staff. A better/larger waste oil collection service had to be designed. All together many factors were considered and in order to supply biodiesel for the entire campus much time and planning would be needed.
• Other Funding — Colorado Alliance for A Sustainable Future is a diverse network of experienced professionals dedicated to serving people who are looking for a way to demonstrate their concern for the environment. Their mission is to promote and facilitate ecologically sustainable and socially responsible building materials and practices throughout the Colorado built environment, thereby improving the quality of life for the people of Colorado and their environment by providing a “one-stop shop” for environmentally concerned individuals. They have teamed up with a five nonprofits whom they will share profits with. In exchange for help in promoting their businesses CU Biodiesel receives a significant portion of profits made from these referrals. Once this program begins it is projected that this will be a small but steady source of revenue for CU Biodiesel. CU Biodiesel received a small grant from the Regional Air Quality Council to subsidize biodiesel use. As CU Biodiesel becomes recognized as an experienced leader in biodiesel education and implementation, they plan to pursue additional to apply for many more grants.
   

The New Plan
In order to implement campus wide biodiesel immediately, CU Biodiesel seized the opportunity to work with local biodiesel producer and broker Blue Sun Biodiesel. They decided that it would be appropriate to use some of the referenda money to subsidize biodiesel for more buses. The subsidies would cover the incremental cost difference in biodiesel when compared with petroleum diesel. The CU Transportation Department committed to using B100 in all buses not under warranty and B20 in all other diesel buses, totaling 13 biodiesel buses.

CU Biodiesel then set off on figuring out an appropriate distribution system for both biodiesel blends. CU Biodiesel contacted the local station where CU buses already fill up, Bartkus Oil. Together with Blue Sun Biodiesel, the group educated President Joe Swank about the benefits of biodiesel and showed him the business opportunity in becoming the first public biodiesel pump station in the region. He agreed to carry B20 at a public pump and provide B100 from a private tank.

This subsidy program will be sustainable in four years with the help of the CU Transportation Department. After each year, the Transportation Department will build some of the biodiesel costs into their budget to ensure the continuation of the. As biodiesel prices go down and the fuel budget goes up, it is projected that many more will run on B100.

CU Biodiesel plans on continuing its production of biodiesel from waste cafeteria grease to power the “Fried Ride”. The efficiency of scaling up production will continue to be looked at and as fewer subsidies are given, an on-campus biodiesel production facility will hopefully be built.

Outreach and education will become more of a focus as CU Biodiesel grows in the future. Many projects will be worked on including virtual biodiesel making software and K-12 biodiesel lesson plans.