Class examines use of biodiesel

By: QUINN EASTMAN - Staff Writer | Wednesday, May 16, 2007 11:40 PM PDT ∞

VALLEY CENTER -- Spurred by a fifth-grade class interested in alternatives to petroleum, Valley Center-Pauma school officials are testing biodiesel, a fuel made from vegetable oils or animal fats.

The district is trying the fuel in its lawn mowers, with an eye to its possible use in school buses, its transportation supervisor, Cheri McGee, said Wednesday.

Students in Lara Schumer's class at Valley Center Upper Elementary have been studying the benefits of various petroleum alternatives for the last year.

The class started with a field trip to the EcoCenter for Alternative Fuel Education in San Diego, where Schumer worked the previous summer.

"We got to see electric cars," said Diego Varona, 10.

But the class figured that biodiesel was a more practical alternative because it wouldn't require school officials to get new buses, said student Mikealah Burdick.

The students examined whether biodiesel could generate enough power for school buses on mountain roads, and compared the pollution produced by burning regular diesel and biodiesel.

Schumer invited a friend, Melanie Zauscher, who is a mechanical engineering graduate student at UC San Diego, to check their figures. One group consulted Plavan Petroleum in Escondido on the cost, she said.

On Wednesday, the students talked about why they thought using biodiesel would be good for Valley Center, including help for the environment and giving a boost to farms.

"Regular diesel is made from dinosaur bones, so there won't be anymore of it," said Jason Cuevas, explaining his understanding of the term fossil fuels.

The group, which is part of Valley Center-Pauma's English/Spanish program, eventually made a presentation to top school administrators on biodiesel's benefits.

Asked if she was nervous, Lizbeth Gutierrez said: "Kind of. But then you start talking about what you know, and it's OK."

The transportation supervisor, McGee, said that at the moment, biodiesel is actually more expensive per gallon than regular gas. She said she is thinking of testing it in a special education bus that regularly visits Escondido.

McGee also noted what several students in Schumer's class said about biodiesel.

"It smells just like fried foods," she said.

Valley Center-Pauma appears to be a pioneer among North County school districts in trying out biodiesel.

UC San Diego uses a 20 percent biodiesel mix in its campus shuttle buses and is trying out 100 percent on one of its shuttle routes, according to an April university news release.

The San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park recently installed biodiesel-powered vehicles as part of its new "African Express" tour system.

Biodiesel is typically blended with regular diesel fuel in concentrations ranging from 5 percent to 20 percent.

According to the federal Environmental Protection Agency, a biodiesel blend can reduce the production of carbon monoxide by 20 percent and fine-sootlike particles by 12 percent.

However, the fuel does not uniformly reduce air pollution; the production of nitrogen oxides, precursors of smog, rises 2 percent with the fuel's use.

A 2006 University of Minnesota study found that soybean-based biodiesel provides about 93 percent more energy than what is required for its production, beating out corn-based ethanol, which provides only 25 percent more energy than what is used to make it.

-- Contact staff writer Quinn Eastman at (760) 740-5412 or qeastman@nctimes.com.

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