Touring bus runs on vegetable oil
Zach Van Cleave
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Iowa State welcomed two environmental enthusiasts to campus Tuesday who have traveled around the United States for the past month on a vegetable-oil-run bus, with the goal to make people aware of alternate energy solutions.
Alan Palm and Ethan Burke are co-directors of BioTour 2007, the project dedicated to jump-starting the sustainable energy movement in the United States and around the world.
Palm and Burke have already made their way to California from Massachusetts and are on their way back. After the fall semester, they predict they will visit 23 states, all by means of a blue school bus.
However, the most intriguing part their story is that their bus is run solely on vegetable oil.
"Diesel engines were originally created to run on oils, but in the last hundred years the technology has been lost because of the popularity of petroleum," Palm said.
The bus has three 55-gallon drums connected to its underside that stores vegetable oil. After being heated and filtered, the vegetable oil is transferred to the fuel tank and used to motor the bus.
"The bus uses 78 percent less carbon dioxide, it emits no sulfur or soot, runs quieter, and gets close to the same gas mileage as a bus run on diesel," Burke said.
Palm and Burke said they can get their vegetable oil from just about any restaurant that has waste vegetable oil, but they prefer to use Chinese restaurants because their oil tends to be cleaner and easier to filter.
"We can usually travel around 2,000 miles when our tanks are full of vegetable oil," Palm said.
In addition to spreading a message, Palm and Burke said they have had a variety of exciting experiences and adventures on their travels.
The pair also encourage anyone who wants to take part in their adventures to sign up and ride on the bus with them for an entire week.
"BioTour has allowed us to make people aware of that learning about and practicing sustainable energy practices should be enjoyable, not a task," Palm said.
The bus also uses solar panels to power all of the electrical appliances inside the bus.
"Solar panels on the top of the bus stores electricity in batteries, which are then used to power our computers, cell phones, and other basic electrical appliances," Burke said.
After visiting Iowa State, the BioTour will visit three other colleges in Iowa and then continue eastward back toward Massachusetts.
The Students for Iowa Public Interest Research Group, VISION 2020, the College of Engineering and the Government of the Student Body's lecture committee organized BioTour's visit to Iowa State.
"We think Iowa State as a foremost institution in leading America and the world to a new energy future," said Devin Hartman, member of the Campus Climate Challenge Campaign and Students for Iowa PRIG.
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