Biodiesel bus rolls

on to WHS campus
By Scott Nicholson
nicholson@wataugademocrat.com

Do you want fries with that?

A biodiesel bus made a pit stop at Watauga High School Tuesday, blending education with the opportunity to recharge batteries and convert used fryer oil to motor fuel.

The bus is operated by the National Outdoor Leadership School and its “Creating a Climate for Change” tour is powered by recycled oil and the sun. Matthew Celesta, one of three members of the bus team, said the non-profit leadership school had interested a number of students but they were also interested in the mechanical process of converting fryer oil to diesel.

“A lot of people enjoy the school,” Celesta said, noting that its leadership efforts also provide skills in backcountry living and recreation as well as environmental stewardship.

“Students enjoy the tour and the concept of a common agricultural product that can be a fuel source.”

The tour is sponsored by corporate partner Stonyfield Farm, which makes organic yogurt and has established itself as a leader in corporate stewardship and responsible resource management, ideals promoted by the bus tour.

The bus spent the day parked at the high school, where solar panels on top of the bus helped charge the batteries and provide energy for the filtering and conversion process that allows the oil to be used to propel the bus.

Celesta said three crew members take turns driving and are also amateur diesel mechanics in addition to tour guides. The bus travels from city to city nationwide.

In three years, the bus has traveled more than 110,000 miles and visited more than 300 colleges, schools, retailers and festivals, all powered by recycled vegetable oil collected by the crew at restaurants and dining halls along the way.

Celesta said finding reliable fryer oil sources is a challenge, because more people are recycling oil as fuel.

“We come back a year later and a restaurant might be under new management, or another ‘greaser,’ as we call them, might have begun collecting their oil,” Celesta said.

“But restaurants love us. Used fryer oil is a product they have to pay to get rid of. We are literally using a waste product.”

Recycled vegetable oil is a cleaner, renewable alternative to petroleum, according to its advocates, and it is made from crops that can be grown by domestic farmers.

The bus also has an array of solar panels on top that keeps the bus off the grid while powering televisions, computers, stereo and refrigerators for the yogurt treats the crew members dish out at each stop.

Celesta said the bus also has the capability to provide power to the electrical grid when it produces more than it is using.

The bus has a bay that can hold 180 gallons of untreated waste oil and a fuel tank that can hold 100 gallons of processed oil.

The 30,000-pound bus gets seven to eight miles a gallon, slightly less than it would on regular diesel fuel.

Stonyfield Farm donates 10 percent of its profits to environmental causes and was America’s first manufacturer to offset 100 percent of its carbon dioxide emissions from its facility energy use.

It recently installed the largest solar array in New Hampshire to help power its production plant.

Founded in 1965, the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) provides wilderness education, environmental ethics and outdoor skills to more than 10,000 students each year.

As part of the bus tour, students watched presentations on fly fishing, outdoor adventure, renewable energy sources and environmental ethics.