Mid-State University Finds Ways To Power Vehicles

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A group of Vanderbilt students are not letting cooking grease go to waste. The oil is fueling everything from campus vans to lawnmowers.

"It's not a good way to pick up ladies or anything," said Vanderbilt student Jon Poe. "We kind of call it the smurf van sometimes."

A student activity bus does not need a conventional gas station to operate.

"When people ask ‘why does it say biodiesel on your car?' we can say ‘well we made that fuel it's a lot cheaper and we're reusing,'" said Poe.

Students like Poe are on the collection team, and they gather cooking oil from campus restaurants. The oil is then heated and mixed with several ingredients before it becomes biodiesel.

"We'll just pull up with the trailer and put this in there and this sucks the oil into that tank," said Vanderbilt professor Derek Riley.

The process started three years ago, under then graduate student turned professor Riley.

"We actually built the system in my back yard in my shed we started making fuel and brought it to campus. They liked it so they built us this little building," said Riley.

Since then the fuel had been powering campus mowers, tractors, lifts and wood chippers.

Clarksville Gas and Water plan to use the same thing to fuel their city vehicles. That is expected to begin sometime this month.