While shuttling back and forth between dorms and campuses on UB's fleet of buses, students may notice the dark clouds of smoke blasting from the shuttles' tailpipes. Many remain more concerned with making it to class on time rather than the potential damage for pollution, but not UB's Engineers for a Sustainable World, a new SA club focused on making the campus environmentally friendly.
Students who live in dorms, either in the Ellicott Complex or on South Campus, know how important their bus transportation is, especially in the winter months, when it is impossible to walk to campus. Engineers for a Sustainable World, or ESW, discovered that the 25 buses running daily each use upwards of 100 gallons of gas per week and currently all run on diesel fuel, releasing harmful pollution into the air.
Kelly Miller, a sophomore environmental engineering major and president of ESW, is currently working to amend this problem and find a reasonable solution for the university. The club, a local chapter of a national organization, formed after a group of UB engineers attended a national convention at Stanford and were inspired to develop a chapter of their own.
The group now hopes to apply the ideas of the national organization in the local UB area.
"The national organization promotes developing sustainable technologies for third-world countries as well as domestic issues," Miller said. "We're focusing on domestic energy issues right now, mainly biodiesel."
Biodiesel is the name of a clean-burning alternative fuel, produced from domestic and renewable resources, specifically vegetable oils. When combined with standard diesel fuel, biodiesel significantly benefits the environment, and B20, a blend of diesel and 20 percent biodiesel fuel, is frequently used by commercial vehicles. According to the official Web site of the National Biodiesel Board, www.biodiesel.org, B20 has demonstrated significant environmental benefits with a minimum increase in cost for fleet operations and other consumers.
"Biodiesel is generally vegetable-based fuel for any diesel-fueled vehicle," said Creighton Randall, a senior mechanical engineering major and a vice president for Engineers for a Sustainable World. "It's completely compatible with existing engines so you just put (it) in the tank. You don't have to buy any equipment for it."
The fume-fighting fuel has recently risen in popularity among cities and their transportation systems, and was recommended for use by Gov. George E. Pataki in his State of the State address last month.
"It works about 90 percent as well as regular diesel fuel and there's only a 10 percent decrease in fuel efficiency so there are virtually no pollutants," Randall said.
The executive board for the Engineers for a Sustainable World, along with their current 15-20 active members, is planning to launch a campaign within the next two or three weeks to get UB buses running on B20.
"The goal with the bussing system is to have UB Stampede running on 20 percent biodiesel fuel, which will significantly affect UB's impact on the environment and improve air quality for the UB community," said Miller.
With a biodiesel fuel supplier in the area, the engineers said that this shouldn't be too much of a feat.
"NOCO, a local fuel provider, supplies biodiesel right now at the same price as regular diesel to the state. What we're trying to do is convince the school to start using biodiesel in everything and a large part of that is buses," said Randall.
While the goals of the engineers may sound simple, there are a few complications.
First, biodiesel is fairly new and causes doubt in some people regarding how it harms diesel engines, especially UB transportation, which may be unwilling to risk the state of their new bus fleet. In addition, commercially brewed biodiesel is required to meet many government regulations so the price is often slightly higher than normal diesel.
However, Randall said when diesel fuel prices skyrocket, biodiesel will become more economically efficient. Additionally, many cities and governments are already implementing biodiesel fuel.
"Diesel is primarily used for commercial vehicles," said Randall. "Biodiesel isn't in use much for personal vehicles but has grown in popularity in city governments and bussing systems."
According to Randall, consumers are sometimes wary of biodiesel fuel but have no reason to be doubtful about its positive effects.
Students who had not previously heard of biodiesel fuel said that it sounds like a positive way to decrease pollution in the environment.
"UB is such a big university. I think it's important to do whatever we can to decrease the harm we're doing to the environment," said Alexandria Hassan, a senior occupational therapy major.
Engineers for a Sustainable World welcome other students, engineers or not, to help with their campaign. Those interested can reach the group at esw_ub@yahoo.com.
"I think we're reaching the breaking point where governments and schools and communities are starting to realize the fiscal viability of biodiesel and other alternative fuels," Randall said.
