Advanced BioFuels USA

by Tom Forrest (ABC News)  A bamboo school and turning fried chicken oil into fuel — this is what school life has been for two young sisters making biofuel for school buses and a unique motorcycle in Indonesia. —  …Speaking to the ABC during a family holiday in Western Australia’s Kimberley region, where their father is now working, they said their new school got them into a unique project: helping to build, maintain and fuel a fleet of biodiesel vehicles.

“It’s great for kids like us to learn about these things,” Britt said.

“There are so many options, for some people, project based learning is harder, so we have the options” Marein added.

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The idea behind the ‘Bio Bus’ was to start a sustainable way of transport to get the Green School’s staff and students to and from school each day.

In the five years since it started, the group now looks after six school buses, all running entirely off used cooking oil.

“There is a group of us called ‘The Grease Police’, and we’ll go out collecting oil from the restaurants,” Britt said.

“We are bringing in about 300 litres per week.”

After the oil is the collected and filtered, the chemical compound lye is added, which separates the cooking by product into glycerine and usable fuel.

The glycerine is then made into a liquid and bar soap, which is exchanged for used cooking oil from restaurants.

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Biodiesel motorbike
In addition to the fuel production, Marein helped build a biodiesel motorbike, which is believed to be one of Indonesia’s first.

Working with a local mechanic, her classmate and a teacher from the school who founded the project, Kyle King.

Starting off with nothing but the engine, the team — Marein, a fellow classmate, Green School teacher and project founder Kyle King — worked on the bike for nearly two years, with support from local mechanics.

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“Another process we also started is with fermented fruit, bioethanol, which can go into the motorcycle engine,” Marein said.

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Black market oil
Collecting oil in Bali isn’t as easy as walking into a restaurant and asking for it, because used oil is sold in the black market.

After the bigger restaurants and hotels can no longer use the oil, it is re-packaged, and sold for half the price to smaller cafes and restaurants.

By the time the oil is disposed of, it could have been used up to 40-plus times, which poses health risks to the body; posing significant concerns to Indonesian authorities.

Chips cooking in oil in a kitchen
PHOTO: Used oil is re-packaged and sold on the black market to smaller restaurants and cafes. (ABC: Eliza Wood)
“After three uses, cooking oil becomes unfit for consumption. It should, therefore, be processed into biodiesel fuel,” Muhammad Suhud from a civil society group coalition told The Jakarta Post in 2015.

“The administration should prioritize the health impacts of an eventual regulation above all other considerations.”

The students not only set out to ask restaurants for oil, but to also educate people on the matter.

“They never really want to give you the oil,” Marein said.

“Because they make money off it.”   READ MORE