The Great Lakes Zephyr - Wind Energy & Hydrogen Journal

National Biodiesel Board
3337A Emerald Ln.
P O Box 104898
Jefferson City, MO 65110-4898
(573) 635-3893 phone
(800) 841-5849
(573) 635-7913 fax
www.biodiesel.org
NEWS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contacts: Jenna Higgins/NBB
(800) 841-5849
October 6, 2003



Back to School with Biodiesel:
Inside and Outside of the Classroom, More Schools, Students and Teachers Realize Benefits of Biodiesel

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.–The start of the 2003 school year marks the most widespread use of biodiesel yet, helping to clean up the air for kindergarten through college-level students. In addition to the numerous school bus fleets that are running on the cleaner burning fuel, teachers and students are increasingly exploring the benefits of biodiesel as part of their classroom curriculum.

Biodiesel can be made from any fat or vegetable oil, such as soybean oil, and works in any diesel engine with few or no modifications. It can be blended with petroleum diesel at any level or used in its pure form. In 1997, the Medford, New Jersey School District was the only school in the nation to run its fleet with the cleaner burning fuel. Today, thousands of buses and other diesel-powered vehicles use soy biodiesel in schools from Durham, North Carolina to colleges like the University of South Carolina in Columbia to Indiana University in Bloomington. Because of the desire of additional schools to use biodiesel, many groups also included biodiesel use as part of their recent proposals to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Bus USA grant program.

“We’re all so concerned about the other vehicles on the road, we need a fuel in our school buses that does not directly harm our children,” said Sharon Love, a parent from Louisville, Kentucky whose 13-year-old daughter Julia suffers from severe asthma. Love says her daughter had to change schools in part to reduce the time she spent on and around diesel-powered school buses because they caused such severe asthma attacks. Love says using biodiesel in school buses “can be done and should be.”

“I’m pleased that biodiesel is part of the solution to improving the air school children breathe,” said National Biodiesel Board (NBB) Executive Director Joe Jobe. “Not only are more school bus fleets making the switch to biodiesel, but teachers and students are exploring the benefits of biodiesel through classroom lessons as well.”

Biodiesel Outside the Classroom
An increasing number of school districts across the country are turning to soy biodiesel as a way to help reduce harmful emissions without having to replace their buses. For example, Durham, NC Public Schools use soy B20 (a blend of 20 percent biodiesel and 80 percent petroleum diesel) in their fleet of 284 buses. Henry Kirby, Executive Director of Transportation for Durham Public Schools, said they are “very pleased with biodiesel”. He said typically they have some complaints about children getting headaches from diesel exhaust, but have had none since making the switch to biodiesel last year.

In addition, biodiesel has reduced the number of service calls they receive because it cleans the engine so well, according to Kirby. Before making the switch to biodiesel, they had eight to ten service calls a month due to clogged fuel filters, but have had none since switching to biodiesel.

Mike Thompson, Transportation Supervisor for the Ithaca, Michigan Public Schools says soy biodiesel is working very well for them and has the added benefit of easing one of their school bus driver’s asthma symptoms. “The driver with asthma tells me that she has noticed a big difference in the fumes since switching to biodiesel and as a result feels much better,” Thompson said. “She is no longer bothered by the exhaust when she walks around the buses.”

Biodiesel Inside the Classroom
In Warwick, Rhode Island, the School District not only uses soy biodiesel in its buses and heating boilers, but is integrating biodiesel into its educational curriculum. Their program is modeled after the high school curriculum on alternative fuels developed by the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA) called Cars of Tomorrow and the American Community. NESEA has distributed between 3,000-4,000 copies of the curriculum, which they developed with a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy Clean Cities Program, and has held workshops for teachers (for more information visit www.nesea.org).

Another way the biodiesel message is reaching students and teachers is through the New England Science Center Collaborative’s (NESCC) Climate Change Backpack. The Backpack is a portable collection of teaching materials and activities for hands-on learning with both formal (classroom) and informal (science centers and museum) audiences. Biodiesel is included in an exercise highlighting solutions (for more information visit www.nescc.info).

The National Energy Education Development (NEED) project -- a nonprofit association dedicated to promoting a realistic understanding of the scientific, economic and environmental impacts of energy, so that students and teachers can make educated decisions – also includes biodiesel in their curriculum materials for middle and secondary school students (for more information visit www.need.org).

In addition, Biofuels4schools, a California-based, non-profit dedicated to increasing the health of kids by promoting the use of biofuels in school buses, has launched a website which will serve as a clearinghouse for school-related biodiesel information (for more information visit www.biofuels4schools.org).

Biodiesel Background
Biodiesel is the only alternative fuel to have completed the rigorous Health Effects testing required by the Clean Air Act. Results show biodiesel poses significantly less risk to human health than petroleum diesel. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently released a comprehensive technical report of biodiesel emissions data that shows the exhaust emissions of particulate matter from pure biodiesel are about 47 percent lower than overall particulate matter emissions from diesel. Breathing particulate has been shown to be a human health hazard. Biodiesel emissions also reduce by 80 to 90 percent cancer causing compounds called Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH) and nitrated PAH. Biodiesel also reduces emissions of total unburned hydrocarbons, a contributing factor to smog and ozone, by about 68 percent. Carbon monoxide is reduced by about 48 percent.

The United Soybean Board and state soybean board checkoff programs funded much of the development of the biodiesel industry in the US. Soybean farmers have invested millions of dollars in bringing biodiesel into commercial success. Today, it is the fastest growing alternative fuel in America, and about 350 major fleets use biodiesel nationwide.

Biodiesel has similar horsepower, torque and BTU content compared to petroleum diesel. It offers excellent lubricity and higher cetane than diesel fuel. Biodiesel is registered with the EPA as a fuel and fuel additive.

• Click here to view a list of some of the schools and universities that are using soy biodiesel.

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Readers can learn more about biodiesel by visiting www.biodiesel.org.