a publication from Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart
Mes Amies spring
2011 Issue \ 3
the innovation issue
Sustainable Solutions : WA Students Brew Biodiesel, Focus Career Interest
W
hat do you get when you
process.” First, they needed something
“What makes fuel bad is that
mix taco grease with
to process. Major agribusinesses
when you burn any fuel, you make
Lake Forest’s Woodlands
would use switch grass or corn but
carbon dioxide. When you burn
Academy of the Sacred Heart students
Tilton said, “We want the kids to see
petroleum, it’s from carbon that’s
and Loyola University’s Community
that we can take waste product and
been sequestered in the Earth for
Outreach Program? Smarter students
make it into something that is useful and
thousands of years,” said Tilton. “If
With the Loyola processor, students
with stomach aches, perhaps, but
reusable.”
you burn a fuel that was produced
put the vegetable oil through a
from plants on the surface, the carbon
multi-day process of heating, mixing
dioxide was already there on the
with potassium hydroxide (lye), and
surface, so you’re not adding any extra
spraying it with water to wash and
when the university loans its biodiesel processor, you get fuel for buses and glycerol for soap.
Tacos el Norte in Libertyville donated two gallons of waste vegetable oil. “It was very interesting. Different odors,”
The Process
to the atmosphere.”
“dry” the oil, all to separate it from
received four gallons from McDonald’s
Lyden was impressed “how something
was hand-cranked through a very
that Loyola had a grant from the
on Waukegan Road in Lake Forest and
as simple as that (vegetable oil)
fine filter into containers.
Environmental Protection Agency
the rest from the school’s kitchen.
really can help the environment and
They created almost six gallons of
Last summer, Linda Tilton, a
the instructor commented. She
Woodlands science teacher, learned
to build and loan the equipment to schools to teach students how biodiesel is made. This semester about 50 students from Woodlands’ Chem Club and her chemistry and environmental science classes are learning the process and its impact. Zach Waickman, head of the Loyola program, met with students and explained the program, science behind it, and global impact biodiesel can have. They were almost off and running.
“It was cool that we could use something average that we use every
it doesn’t affect the environment as much as gasoline.”
day and turn it into something that
At the beginning of the course, some
can power things,” said Kate Flint, a
of Tilton’s senior-year students had
senior from Lake Forest, and a student
aspirations of becoming a lawyer or a
in last semester’s environmental
writer, but by the end, she said, “they
science class.
could see themselves tying this into
Added Tilton, “It cost my husband and me a little elbow grease to clean it all up
water and other impurities. Then, it
a low-quality but usable biodiesel. Woodlands has no machines which could run on it, so it’ll be donated to Loyola.
law or any other kinds of majors they would try in college.”
afterwards,” but otherwise it was free,
Flint’s goals were sharpened by
and it saved eight gallons from going
the program. “I wanted to go into
to a landfill. Students would separate
engineering before the class and it
this into biodiesel for fuel and glycerol
definitely solidified that I want to go into
Leann Lyden, a senior from Lake
or fat. “It’s expensive to create, hard to
environmental engineering,” she said.
Forest and in Tilton’s first-semester
find, and expensive to buy the vehicles
environmental science class, was
and machinery which run on it,
excited about “green” energy and
however, Loyola does it,” said Tilton.
said, “We knew from experience about
“They’ve converted lawnmowers and
biodiesel fuel from the buses in Chicago,
other equipment, and the buses they
and we were excited to get involved in the
drive on campus.”
By Steve Handwerker/Reprinted by permission of the editor, Lake ForestLake Bluff Patch at Patch.com.
Photo courtesy of Steve Handwerker