Changing the future of fuel What was once considered science
fiction (think Back to the Future) now is reality. Well, almost.
They aren't stuffing wilted lettuce and banana peels into gas
tanks, but students with ISU BioBus are recycling waste
vegetable oil from an Iowa State dining hall into biofuel to
supplement the diesel fuel in a bus from Ames' CyRide fleet. ISU
BioBus, an entrepreneurial student organization created three
years ago, currently has about 100 members from all academic
disciplines. David Correll, a Ph.D. candidate in the College of
Business and one of the founders of ISU BioBus, says the
organization is a good fit for students concerned about the
environment. "We're engaging students to reduce the carbon
footprint of their own community," Correll said. From French
fries to fuel Students meet twice each week to convert the
vegetable oil into biofuel using a process called
transesterification, which permanently thins the vegetable oil.
They even built their own contraption -- the Super Sucker