University of Illinois, Chicago
Office of Sustainability
Chicago, Illinois
Intern: Britt Mork
Northern Illinois University, DeKalb
The University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) is a state-funded public research
university located in Chicago. UIC is the largest university in the Chicago
area, serving approximately 26,000 students within 15 colleges, including the
nation’s largest medical school.
The intern project focused on the production of biodiesel from waste vegetable
oil generated by the dining services on the UIC campus. This project began
as a feasibility study that evolved into an actual pilot program.
Results:
A biodiesel reactor was constructed with off-the-shelf materials for approximately
$6,900. This reactor has the capacity to produce 90-gallons of biodiesel per
week, with the potential to yield 4,410 gallons of fuel over a 49-week year.
The biodiesel’s ingredients included waste vegetable oil, methanol,
and either potassium hydroxide or sodium hydroxide, which were used as a catalyst
in the process. Several 20-gallon plastic barrels were placed around the campus
dining services to temporarily store waste vegetable oil until it was collected
for processing.
The intern determined that one half of the methanol feedstock could be supplied
by the distillation of a pharmaceutical wastestream. This would lower biodiesel
production costs to $2.00 per gallon. One of the by-products of biodiesel production,
glycerin, could be distilled to help remove excess potassium hydroxide (lye).
The glycerin could also be used by a battered women’s shelter in the
community to produce and market a soap product for sale to the public.
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