Talks and Workshops

CU Biodiesel founder Andrew Azman will present an overview of establishing a sustainable biodiesel production system. This lecture will highlight the accomplishments and future plans of CU Biodiesel, and address the possibilities of biodiesel implementation in the developing world. This lecture will be followed by a biodiesel production workshop where participants will learn the fundamentals of converting vegetable oil into biodiesel fuel. The CU Biodiesel production facility will be open for tours later that evening, transportation will be provided by The CU Biodiesel Bus.

Background: In Sept. 2002, a class led by Engineers Without Borders founder Professor Bernard Amadei, aimed to design sustainable technologies with hopes of making less impact on the natural world. A group of students in this class recognized the need to find an alternative to dirty petroleum products. They regarded innovative technologies such as the Hydrogen fuel cell to be an innovation of the future, but were looking for a technology directly compatible with the present infrastructure. Vegetable based biodiesel fuel was the source for this technology they were looking for. This group of engineering students lead by Andrew Azman, an environmental engineering student recognized the need, and opportunity for biodiesel implementation at CU-Boulder, and took on the ambitious task of designing and building a prototype processor in one semester which could turn waste vegetable oil into fuel for a diesel engine. This was the start of the student nonprofit group CU Biodiesel. Since this class Azman has led CU Biodiesel in collaborating with officials from the University of Colorado’s environmental center, housing department, and transportation department to initiate a biodiesel pilot project. This project powers one campus bus from biodiesel made from waste cafeteria grease in CU Biodiesel’s processor. CU Biodiesel is currently designing an infrastructure to recycle all the waste fryer grease from CU and many Boulder restaurants. This project will make CU a leader in sustainable transportation, and a model for other cities to follow.

CU Biodiesel
(http://www.cu-biodiesel.org )