Photo: Rockwood Summit High School
January 17, 2013
BY Rockwood Summit High School
Students at Rockwood Summit High School in Missouri are asking the community to support their plans to build a renewable fuel education center. Among the fundraising efforts, students are selling raffle tickets for the chance to win a one-year lease of a 2013 Volkswagen Beetle TDI. The lease has been donated by the St. Louis Auto Show and is unique to Rockwood Summit. To purchase raffle tickets in support of Rockwood Summit High School’s biodiesel education, click here.
With an estimated cost of $100,000, the renewable fuel education center will provide a designated space for students to continue their research on the best ways to produce biodiesel. For the last four years, students have made biodiesel from waste vegetable oil. During this time, interest in the project has expanded and students have learned how to produce high-quality fuel that meets or exceeds ASTM quality specifications.
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According to teacher Darrin Peters, the renewable fuel education center would benefit students in classes from chemistry and physics to math, business and environmental science. “As interest in this project has grown, we have outgrown our current space—a 15 square-foot ‘lab’ that is actually a storage shed for athletic and maintenance equipment. Recently we updated our biodiesel processor to a larger, safer model. While this has allowed us to increase our fuel production, it has limited our space even further.”
The proposal is to build a 20’ x 25’ facility that would serve as a sustainable fuel research, education and production center. Named the “Falcon Sustainable Fuel Research Center,” Peters said students involved with the biodiesel project are excited to expand their work, and this raffle is a way to get them closer to their goal.
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In addition to fundraising efforts, biodiesel students hope to obtain grants and corporate donations to support this project. “Ideally, we’d like to secure enough funding by the end of 2013,” said Peters. “Looking long term, students would like to be able have a space where they can conduct research and produce biodiesel that could fuel the district’s off-road diesel equipment.”
To read more about this project in Biodiesel Magazine, click here.