At some point in the future, the Joey might do more than just shuttle students to and from Davis Square. If a group of chemical engineers is successful, the Joey could also dispose of waste cooking oil produced in the kitchens of Tufts' eateries. Although the Tufts biodiesel project is only in its preliminary stages and may not come to fruition, those involved believe it can contribute to Tufts' mission of environmental sustainability.
The Tufts biodiesel project began in 2007 as a subcommittee of Tufts Environmental Consciousness Outreach (ECO). Senior Becky Gallagher, the head of the committee, explained the project's original plan.
"Grease from the dining halls would be processed by undergrad[uate] or graduate students in the Sci-Tech building and then transported across the street for storage at facilities and use for their many diesel vehicles," Gallagher said in an e-mail to the Daily. "The operators of the Joey seemed open to the idea of using a biofuel mix in their bus."
But while the biodiesel project was enthusiastic, it ran into some technical difficulties.
"The tough part was coordinating these interests and securing funding to support a large-scale biodiesel processing," Gallagher said.
"It sort of fizzled out because a lot of the leading members either graduated or went abroad," added senior Raeann Bourscheid, the current head of the biodiesel project.
The endeavor, however, was not forgotten. Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering Blain Pfeifer contacted Bourscheid and senior Jessica Sites, both chemical engineering majors, over the summer about continuing the project. Mindy Nierenberg, the senior student programs manager from the Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service, was also included in the planning, as well as members of other departments.
The group discussed how feasible it would be to get the project moving again. Within the next few weeks, Nierenberg secured an alumni donation to get the project going.
"Over the last couple weeks, we've been trying to bring in other undergraduates and people in the chemical engineering department to start making some progress," Bourscheid said.
The long-term goal of the project is to have a biodiesel processing plant installed on campus to convert waste oil from the dining halls and dining services areas into biofuel. Bourscheid hopes to have the fuel powering on-campus facilities vehicles and possibly the Joey.
As for short-term goals, the group is working to have one batch of biofuel run and certified this academic year, and it hopes to hold an event in which biofuel is used to power a Facilities vehicle or the Joey for a day.
"We have some plans in the works to try and integrate [the project] with the Chemical Engineering department as an independent study or a research credit so that it's maintained by students and TA'd by graduate students in the department," Bourscheid said. "We're hoping that, because we're eliminating waste oil costs from the dining halls and also providing the facilities vehicles with fuel, we'll actually be financially self-sustaining."
Although the project currently involves chemical engineers, Bourscheid hopes that it may involve members of environmental groups once it "gets on its feet."
Junior Oliver Harris, also a chemical engineering major, hopes to increase his involvement and aid the project's long-term prospects. "I notice that a lot of the people involved are seniors, so hopefully I can be someone that plays an important role in keeping it alive next year," Harris said.
Senior Yung-Feng Fung is heavily involved in the business and financial aspects of the project.
Fung discussed how the group is planning to line up funds and be as self-sufficient as possible. "It's actually more of a two-part plan," he said. "Basically what we're trying to do with Tufts biodiesel is … to create a sustainable business plan for it where, if we use the fuel or waste oils produced by the cafeteria, we'll be able to actually process that and sell it back."
The group has not yet done much analysis of Tufts' production of food waste and how much oil would be available, but it has looked at other schools that have worked on similar programs, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Although MIT did not follow through with its analysis, Fung believes that the data it did collect is enough to project the success of Tufts' efforts.
"From their numbers, I think that from the waste oil that would be produced from all the eateries and diners, we should be able to power the Joey," Fung said.
The biodiesel project is trying to work with other Tufts groups to acquire funding, and the group is looking to enter the Tufts Business Plan Competition (sponsored by the Gordon Institute) in hopes of securing $50,000 by winning the social entrepreneurship award.
"We're looking towards more of a social change or statement in going green, whereas the other classic ones would be looking at more for-profit models," Fung said.
Data from other universities have shown that experimenting with and building a biodiesel reactor can cost about $5,000. The group is also looking at the option of acquiring a reactor, but Fung was unwilling to disclose how much that would cost.
If the group goes the way of building the reactor, an operational team would work in a lab to design it.
"We sort of have an outline of how we're going to do things, but we kind of have to do experiments and scale it up," Fung said.
