http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/2013/04/24/3453995/horry-students-turn-french-fry.html
Horry students turn french fry oil to biodiesel
Published: April 24, 2013
By Vicki Grooms
LORIS — Some Loris High School agriculture students are learning how
to convert used cooking oil into biodiesel fuel, an exercise that is
really taking off – in lawnmowers, tractors and even a bus.
Teacher Nate Bellamy said he began working with the conversion process
about two years ago and has incorporated it into a class this semester.
It is a novel way to demonstrate math and chemistry skills in an
agriculture program that isn’t just for farmers, or men, anymore. In
addition to the horticulture-based curriculum, students are learning
leadership and skills they can apply in areas such as engineering and
business.
“We do an array of activities, and we’re always trying to find different
things we can do,” Bellamy said. “There are not a lot of farmers
anymore, but there’s a lot that farming practices entail.”
Agriculture is part of the career and technology program at six of Horry
County Schools’ 10 high schools: Aynor, Carolina Forest, Conway, Green
Sea Floyds, Socastee and Loris. While freshman courses are similar at
all the schools, others are oriented to the area where a school is
located, said Ben Hardee, the district’s director of career and
technology programs, who taught the program at Loris for 26 years.
Aynor’s program has more of an environmental focus and deals with
forestry because there is still forestry production in that area.
Bellamy said having a biodiesel lab is rare, but students learn
real-life chemistry and precision, as well as strict safety procedures
necessary when working with harsh chemicals and highly flammable
materials. The work takes place in a separate steel building outfitted
with polycarbonate tanks and used cooking oil from the school cafeteria.
Bellamy said they collect about 15 gallons per week, and when they have
about a month’s supply, they go to work, aiming to make 80 gallons of
fuel each time.
Students are required to wear lab coats, glasses and gloves before they
begin. The process involves mixing methanol with flakes of potassium
hydroxide, and when that breaks down, it is mixed with the oil. Bellamy
said the mixture continuously flows through the tanks for eight hours,
and they have to then draw off the glycerol that has formed to get the
finished product.
“You can pretty much use everything,” said Bellamy, adding that methanol
can be pulled out of the glycerol, which also can be used to make lye
soap. “It doesn’t save a lot of money, but you still can get two uses
out of the oil.”
The program, however, has gotten a lot of use from the finished product,
which Bellamy said is much cleaner than regular diesel fuel. He said
they have used biodiesel fuel in various machines, such as their
tractor, without first having to convert its motor, and it also ran a
small activities bus they had in the past, albeit with a small drawback.
“It smelled like fried chicken going down the road,” Bellamy said, “but
it ran fine, maybe even better than with regular fuel.”
Making biodiesel fuel is only one part of Loris’ agriculture program,
which includes turf and lawn management, sports turf management,
agribusiness and marketing, in addition to learning about fields, plants
and grasses. Bellamy said they had more than 15,000 plants in their
greenhouse before their annual plant sale that just concluded, and this
year, they have also planted 6 acres of corn.
This week, Bellamy is taking four of his students to the annual National
Soil-Judging Contest in Oklahoma City, one of many contests they
participate in through the FFA club (formerly known as Future Farmers of
America). Loris is one of the two teams the state is sending to compete
with about 130 other schools, and it is Loris’ fifth trip in eight years.
Hardee said many schools like having agriculture programs because they
are so diverse, and he hears from many of his former students who work
in business, law and medicine, about how things they learned in class
have been relevant later in their lives.
“Everything has something to do with soils and agriculture,” Bellamy
said. “It touches every living thing.”
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