U-M students reclaim waste grease as renewable fuel
University of Michigan engineering students demonstrated that junk food does have a good side? It can be used to make biodiesel fuel for U-M buses. For their environmental sustainability course, a student team demonstrated that it is economically and technically feasible to harvest the 10,700 gallons of waste grease produced in the 10 campus dining halls to make an effective biodiesel fuel, which they produced and then tested out on a small U-M tractor. The University purchases 60,000 gallons of biodiesel per year for its diesel bus fleet; replacing 10,700 gallons of that purchase with waste grease will achieve an estimated $28,000 annual cost savings. Savings could be increased to about $150,000 by incorporating waste greases from the University Health System cafeterias and area restaurants.
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