Coordination with Campus Organizations and Departments
UR Biodiesel has and always will be a student initiated and student run project. However, one goal of this project was to involve the entire campus community by having an interdisciplinary approach to sustainability that includes participation from many different academic departments, student organizations, and University offices. Without the support of each of the following offices, groups and departments, the UR Biodiesel project would not be where it is today. The involvement of such a wide variety of groups and individuals helped strengthen the sustainability community and gave everybody some ownership over the UR Biodiesel project, making it truly a community effort.
School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Parking and Transportation Services
Art and Art History Council
Facilities
Dining
Engineers for a Sustainable World
School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
The School of Engineering and Applied Sciences has been an ally from early on. Dr. Daniel Martinez, a former Postdoctoral Fellow in the Chemical Engineering Department helped us early on as we were formulating our ideas. Professor Ben Ebenhack, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Chemical Engineering, is the UR Biodiesel Faculty Adviser. Ben has guided us from an academic perspective throughout the entire process, providing the essential academic link that we needed. Additionally, he has devoted components of his courses, specifically Chemical Engineering 278: Energy Alternatives Lab and CHE218K: Solving UR’s Environmental Footprint. This is an important aspect of the project because it ensures its student driven propagation. Additionally, the assistance of Dean Kevin Parker in initially providing support for UR Biodiesel, as well as the support of his successor, Dean Clarke, has been helpful in solidifying the essential link between academics and the UR Biodiesel program.
Parking and Transportation Services
The University’s Parking and Transportation Services office and its Director, Glen Sicard, have been helpful in providing the bus that will use the biodiesel. While details are still being worked out, Transportation has provided us with “University Bus #6,” which is one of the Blue Bird busses. We hope to paint or vinyl-wrap the bus before the kickoff. Transportation’s support has been essential as biodiesel gets us nowhere if we do not have a bus to pump it into. The bus will likely initially run the Park Lot loop, and we hope to eventually run it on the Green Line (pun intended) to locations such as the Public Market.
Art and Art History Council
As already discussed, UR Biodiesel incorporates students in every aspect possible. This holds true when it comes to the bus design. The Undergraduate Art and Art History Council set up a design competition that will be open to the entire University community to create a design and paint the bus that will serve as a traveling billboard for UR’s commitment to sustainability. The members of the Council will also be designing a UR Biodiesel logo as well as painting a wall in the UR Biodiesel facility.
Facilities
This project has received immense support from UR Facilities, including from Richard Pifer, Associate Vice President of University Facilities and Services, Jeff Foster, Director of River Campus Facilities & University Properties, and Eris Oleksyn, Trades Supervisor and Area Manager. UR Facilities has been instrumental in providing space, materials, information and guidance for the waste vegetable oil processor and laboratory. UR Facilities handled the complex task of outfitting a garage to become the UR Biodiesel facility, and Eris Oleksyn has been assisting day-to-day as we work to order parts for, design and construct the processor. Facilities also generously took us on a trip to Carlisle Pennsylvania to see how Dickinson College operates their biodiesel processor.
Dining
Campus Dining Services has been instrumental in putting UR Biodiesel in action. Cam Schauf, Director of Campus Dining Services and Auxiliary Operations, has provided us with endless support from his office as we worked out the details. Cam, along with Mary Locke, Director of Operations for Dining, contributed to UR Biodiesel by providing a plethora of data regarding their use of vegetable oil and the amount of waste vegetable oil they produce. Additionally, Dining agreed to provide us with River Campus waste vegetable oil as needed. Just like we cannot use biodiesel unless we have a bus to put it in, we cannot create biodiesel without waste vegetable oil. Dining has been incredibly understanding and flexible as we worked to come up with a sensible system for retrieving the waste vegetable oil from their dining centers.
Engineers for a Sustainable World
Engineers for a Sustainable World is the undergraduate student group that facilitated much of the project. The students involved in UR Biodiesel are members of Engineers for a Sustainable World, and the club has served as a platform to assist the club in gathering student support and other assistance.