School Will Use Cooking Oil To Fuel Activity Bus

By: Marisela Burgos/Eyewitness News 9 | WNCT
Published: April 22, 2008

Washington High School in Beaufort County is using a $27,000 dollar grant to send one of their buses to the cafeteria instead of the gas station to refuel.

“We go to the gas station we fill up our cars with gas or diesel, whatever the case may be, but we don't think about what goes into it,” WHS Agriculture Teacher, Josh Davenport says.

The students are going to make bio-diesel fuel on campus, using an unlikely substance -cooking oil.

“This has been out there for quite a while. It’s been a viable option or an idea, but it's not been an idea that people have really put into practical use,” WHS Science Teacher, Clay Campbell says.

Campbell says the grant money will buy them the equipment they need for a bio-diesel production center on campus. The students will take waste vegetable oil, filter it and send it through a chemical process which, in the end, will purify the oil so it burns.

“And then with a little modification of fuel injectors and diesel engines, we can run it straight into the activity bus,” Campbell says.

Principal Russell Holloman predicts they'll be able to convert 40 gallons per batch. “Feasibly we could run our activity bus off of the fuel we create here,” Holloman says.

Campbell says the school is excited about reusing a renewable resource in a rural area like Beaufort County.

They hope to start the program in the fall as part of agriculture and mechanics classes. Sixteen to 18 students will get to work on this project and Beaufort County hopes this will get them ready for the workforce.