Are high gas prices and a worsening economy worrying you? One UMBC organization offers a solution. The Biodiesel Club, founded by junior Chemical Engineering student Mike German, seeks to alleviate the dependency on foreign oil while decreasing harmful carbon and sulfur emissions by manufacturing their very own biodiesel.

Biodiesel, an EPA-approved alternative fuel for diesel engines, can either be blended with petroleum-based diesel fuels or used in its pure form, which lacks the harmful emissions regular diesel produces. For this reason, German, Fellippe Balieiro, and other students hoped to create a biodiesel program that would fuel the school's bus system. The students were disappointed when their idea was not chosen as the winner of last year's SGA-sponsored ProveIt! project. More determined than ever this year, the students formed the Biodiesel Club with the help of their SGA advisor, Dr. Theresea Good, and Dr. Bradley Arnold, an associate professor of Chemistry.

Of the club's 15 members, five have been responsible for getting the program up and running. The team has, in fact, been successful in creating a working fuel. To create the biodiesel, vegetable oil is heated and combined with methanol and lye, creating biodiesel and glycerol. Through multiple processes, the students are able to separate out the glycerol, which can be used to make soaps, leaving only the biodiesel in its pure form. The operation takes a couple of days to complete and is currently being performed at a nearby farm where the owner, Dick Hunt, is as equally excited about alternative energies. In fact, the farmer is looking into solar energy and methane collection and plans to use some of the biodiesel fuel to heat his home this winter.

The program just began last month and has already created 40-60 gallons of the fuel per week using oil from local restaurants. The goal of the club is to eventually recycle cooking oil from the Commons and the Dining Hall into a fuel that can be used across campus. Currently, the group is expanding their enterprise to accommodate the 160 gallons of oil Chartwell's produces on a weekly basis.

Two club members are using the biodiesel to fuel their cars, a Ford pickup truck and a Volkswagen Jetta. German says the only downside is "that the biodiesel makes the car smell like chicken nuggets."

Some people might not mind the smell of chicken nuggets when it is accompanied by the benefits of using biodiesel. It is just as efficient as regular diesel fuel, but costs less than a dollar a gallon to create and will not harm the environment. The aim of the club is to eventually power four of UMBC's busses with a mixture of 20 percent biodiesel fuel and 80 percent petroleum-based diesel, only because using pure biodiesel could void the vehicles' warranties.