MOUNT VERNON — The butter that once made up the famous sculptures at the Ohio State Fair is now sitting in black barrels on the campus of Mount Vernon Nazarene University, waiting to be turned into biodiesel. All 2,500 pounds of butter used in the state fair sculptures, and also about 300 gallons of waste vegetable oil from the fair, were acquired by MVNU and will be processed into biodiesel over the next few months.
The facilities management staff at MVNU is not processing the melted butter straight, but at this point is processing a mixture of butter and waste vegetable oil and seeing what the results are.
“Right now, we’re kind of doing ... a mix, it’s not straight butter right now ... it’s a little bit of oil [and] a little bit of butter,” said Denny Taylor, MVNU facilities management director.
When in operation, the processing equipment hums quietly and the vat of biodiesel is warm — but not hot — to the touch. Methanol and lye are added to the oil and butter, and the mixture is then circulated through the equipment; it is heated and filtered repeatedly. One byproduct of the process is glycerin, which MVNU mixes with mulch and uses in landscaping on campus, according to Taylor.
In the spring, the university began running the biodiesel in its equipment straight, after previously mixing the biodiesel with regular diesel fuel. The university has not encountered a problem running the biodiesel straight, according to Taylor.
According to Garry Detty, maintenance technician at MVNU, a batch of biodiesel takes a minimum of one hour to process, but he usually allows it to circulate about two or three hours to ensure it is well mixed.
“I’m more satisfied [when] it has had plenty of time for everything to circulate,” he said.
After the circulation and heating, Detty said, he likes to leave the mixture overnight to allow any particulate matter to settle to the bottom of the vat.
The maximum amount of oil that can be processed at one time is about 80 gallons, said Detty.
“It’s an equal trade off,” he said. “If you put 80 gallons of oil in, you will get 80 gallons of fuel back.”
The latest estimate showed it was costing the university about 90 cents per gallon to produce biodiesel.
MVNU made an initial investment of about $5,000 for the equipment used in producing biodiesel, and Taylor estimates the institution has nearly recouped its investment. Detty said he has processed about 500 gallons of biodiesel since Dec. 5.
Detty said the process for producing biodiesel is a very safe process, involving no volatile chemicals.
“It’s combustible, it’s not flammable,” said Detty. “Diesel fuel is almost impossible to burn.”
MVNU is licensed to obtain waste vegetable oil from restaurants and vendors, but the production of biodiesel requires no special license or certification, according to Taylor.
