BYU–Hawaii Food Services has been extensively involved with recycling, and, to reduce overall operating costs, they have begun composting waste vegetable materials. Initial research about the best approach to effectively use latent energy from waste vegetable oil and cooked meat fats was done, which pointed toward a new kind of energy—biodiesel. (pictured: student chef situates himself in the Food Service kitchen)
To further develop this research, Food Services contacted the campus Department of Biochemistry and Physical Sciences to confirm this select approach, and Hawaii Reserves Inc. was subsequently contacted to help with the implementation.
The prototype fuel system was formulated with the objective of processing fuel in 100 gallon increments. After initially filtering and adding methanol, the process resulted in biodiesel.
The end-product could now provide self-sustainability for campus trucks, lawn mowers, and other equipment. The preliminary estimates indicated that the ensuing fuel costs would be approximately half the current cost of diesel fuel. Consequently, this could mean significant operating cost reduction with minimum manpower.
Also, associated with this process of converting waste fats into 100 gallons of fuel was an additional 20 gallons of byproduct waste material. Again, the Department of Biochemistry and Physical Sciences was contacted to determine the potential of the material—the outcome was a material that was essentially glycerol.
The distillation process that produced glycerol now added a few more steps—adding a scent and an antibacterial agent. The outcome was high grade hand soap. This hand soap has been approved by the Hawaii Health Department and is currently used in Food Services. The main advantage here is that the hand soap costs less than 1/5 the current retail price. With the resulting quantity, this is now a marketable product.
Thus, the waste material that was normally sent to a landfill has now become useful fuel and a marketable product, and the resulting quantity available for hand soap provides the largest potential financial return of this whole process.
BYU–Hawaii continues to develop new ideas to provide a friendly environment and provide a significant reduction in operating costs across the campus.
--Photo by Monique Saenz