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ALSO
IN THIS ISSUE Championship Turf Tender Sounds of Success New Home in Urban Village In the Spirit of the Season Pace Yourself Fill 'er Up With Fries Chancellor's Column Development News Factoids Newsmakers Accomplishments by faculty and staff… |
Fill 'er Up With Fries French
fries, taquitos and chicken McNuggets are the latest weapon in the war
on high fuel prices and diesel pollution, said Russell Teall of Biodiesel
Development Corporation. Those
fast food favorites go into a relatively low-cost process that manufactures
biodiesel, a nontoxic biodegradable replacement for petroleum diesel,
he explained. Teall
revealed this fuel formula to a group of college students, as well as
regional and state energy officials, during a three-day visit to Miramar
College last fall. California
features 1 million diesel engines and state officials project a 40 percent
increase in the number of diesel-powered engines in California in the
next 20 years. All the while, federal energy and pollution mandates call
for a 20 percent cut in diesel emissions. Made
much like a high-tech version of moonshine, Teall’s “white lightning”
biodiesel can be distilled through mixing nontoxic chemical agents with
vegetable oil, recycled cooking oil and tallow, which is extracted from
the natural fat of cattle and sheep. “People
say this thing looks like a hot dog stand or a traveling medicine show,”
Teall says of the long flatbed trailer holding solar panels and heat chambers
that facilitate the chemical breakdown into biodiesel and separate out
the remaining solid matter. Teall
is a former attorney who started working with biodiesel concoctions seven
years ago. His biodiesel development company got its prototype running
with a $50,000 federal Department of Energy grant. The unit on a 7-by-14-foot
flatbed trailer makes 30 gallons of biodiesel at a time, in about an hour. Applications
for the diesel alternative extend beyond the trucking industry into air
and sea use. And, yes, Teall uses his own biodiesel mixture in his diesel-powered
truck. In fact, after the hour it took to make some fuel at a college
demonstration, Teal put it directly into his truck’s tank, inviting
people to smell the exhaust. The French fry scent was unmistakable. Teall
chose to kick off his 10-city tour of California at Miramar College, nationally
recognized for its advanced transportation programs and industry partnerships,
to showcase his fuel alternative and its advantages to area diesel owners
and fleet managers, restaurant owners, public officials, educators and
the general public. Would
you like something to drink with that? |
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