April 22, 2008 01:22 pm

Cut and paste version of story Photos Joe Doyon, a mechanic at Merrimack College, opens a barrel of filtered vegetable oil harvested from the dining hall, which will be blended with diesel fuel to power about 25 of the school's maintenance vehicles. The new fuel is estimated to save the school about $10,000 a year. Staff photo Joe Doyon fills a Merrimack College dump truck with a blend of cooking oil and diesel made at the school. Staff photo The Physical Plant department shows the different stages of the blending process in jars. At left is the final mixed blend of oil and diesel, warmed up and ready to be used. In the center is the straight diesel fuel and on the right is cooled oil not yet heated. Staff photo Merrimack College uses a blend of cooking oil and diesel fuel in about 25 maintenance vehicles, including everything from ride-on lawn mowers to trash trucks. Staff photo

College beating record fuel prices with vegetable oil

Merrimack College isn't known for breakthrough science discoveries but the head of the school's maintenance department has cooked up an odd mix to save money on diesel fuel.

By Drake Lucas
CNHI News Service

NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. — Rrecord fuel prices got you down? Can't figure out how to cut costs? Take a green lesson from Merrimack College.

The small liberal arts school north of Boston has cooked up a new way to cut expenses by blending cooked vegetable oil with diesel fuel to power 25 of its diesel-dependent maintenance vehicles and machines, ranging from lawn mowers to a dump truck.

Bob Coppola, the college's director of physical plant, estimated the oddball mix will save about $10,000 a year in fuel costs. An added benefit, he said, is a trace of french fry scent emitted by the vehicles across the campus.

"There's no downside," Coppola said. "We save dollars and reduce our carbon footprint."

Coppola said the idea came to him when he saw a Discovery Channel show about using vegetable oil for fuel. That led to an Internet search and more information about the possibility of blending it with diesel fuel.

Two months of trial and error led to the winning formula of 80 percent diesel fuel and 20 percent used vegetable oil. He also learned that the vehicles had to be kept warm in a garage in the winter because vegetable oil is thicker than diesel fuel and thus solidfies when cold.

Coppola said the cooked vegetable oil comes from the college's cafeteria, which uses 1,200 gallons per year. It is filtered numerous times to remove flour, batter and other cooking elements before it goes into a tank for heating to 120 degrees. Then it is transferred to another tank, where the diesel fuel is added and made ready for pumping into the various vehicles.

Coppola said the low-cost fuel idea gave his department something new to concentrate on -- a college experiment outside of the science labs.

"It has been a fun project," he said. "It gives us a chance to do a different type of work."

Coppola's only concern is if the cafeteria could suddenly go healthy and cut down on fried food.

But he isn't too worried. He quipped that the demand for french fries might well increase now that they fragrant the campus.

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Drake Lucas writes for The Eagle-Tribune of North Andover, Mass.