 "Photo: Jordan Gomez")
 "Photo: Jordan Gomez")
The heavy smell of fried foods in the Jester and Kinsolving cafeterias is enough to turn away some healthy eaters, but for electrical engineering senior Kofi James, the aroma of vegetable oil is the sweet smell of success. James has made arrangements to convert the waste vegetable oil from both cafeterias into biodiesel fuel.
Biodiesel is a clean-burning alternative fuel produced from renewable resources such as vegetable and soybean oils. It has lower emissions than petroleum diesel, biodegrades as quickly as sugar and is less toxic than table salt, according to the National Biodiesel Board.
The future of B100, pure biodiesel like the kind James is making, looks promising, but companies selling blends - biodiesel mixed with petroleum diesel - could face higher costs if they continue to sell in the state of Texas.
James and a group of four or five students are creating a machine at the UT's Pickle Research Center that converts waste oil into biodiesel in 24 hours.
"We're taking out old parts and putting new [ones] in right now," James said. "We hope to have the machine completed in September or October."
The B100 the students' machine creates will be mixed with the University's diesel to create B20, a blend of 20 percent biodiesel and 80 percent petroleum diesel, and will power University vehicles, currently running on petroleum diesel, James said.
James said his team can usually get 1 gallon of B100 per gallon of vegetable oil.
"It all depends on the fat content of the oil," he said. "If it's fresher oil, you get more B100 from it. If it [was] cooked for a longer time, you get less."
However, a plan allowing producers to sell any biodiesel blends in areas regulated by the Texas Low Emission Diesel program, known as TxLED, expires on Dec. 31, said
Morris Brown of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Around 110 counties east of Interstate 35 fall into TxLED areas, including major cities such as Dallas, Houston, Galveston and Beaumont, where air quality is poorer.
If companies want to sell biodiesel blends after Dec. 31 in the TxLED-regulated areas, they will have to use an approved additive in their fuel, Brown said. Right now there is one approved additive on the market.
The controversy over using a B20 fuel additive revolves around conflicting data showing how B20 does and does not contribute to Nitrogen Oxide, or NOx, emissions. NOx compounds play an important role in the atmospheric reactions that can create harmful particulate matter, smog and acid rain.
"The U.S. Envirnomental Protection Agency shows NOx emissions have a potential impact on air quality, so we have to follow the EPA's guidelines at this point," Brown said.
In 2002, the agency conducted a lab engine test that put resistance on an engine while emissions equipment hooked up to the engine took measurements.
"This type of study can be very precisely calculated, and the conditions can be easily replicated," said Sandra Rennie, who works for the Air Planning Section at the agency. "The EPA's test results showed about a 2-percent increase in NOx with the use of biodiesel."
Robert McCormick, a principle engineer at the National Renewable Engineering Laboratory for the U.S. Department of Energy, said the EPA report is essentially just an analysis of all the data published up until 2002.
"The EPA didn't actually do any testing, and a large fraction of the data they reviewed was mine," McCormick said.
McCormick has worked off and on with biodiesel fuels since 1995 and published a study in October 2006 on NOx emissions from vehicle testing.
"We did a field study of biodiesel use in transit buses and tested them on B20 and diesel fuel in a driving cycle that was similar to what they actually did in the real world," he said. "After thorough testing, I was forced to conclude that at least some of the time biodiesel makes NOx go down in some settings."
For the vehicles tested, McCormick said on average the change in NOx emissions was zero.
"[The EPA] concluded NOx went up on average 2 percent, but what we saw in our vehicle testing studies is that it depended on the engine tested."
In addition, McCormick said as he looked more carefully at the EPA's database, he found that half of the data is from one engine that showed a NOx increase.
The discrepancy between the EPA and McCormick's findings has prompted Earth Biofuels, a Dallas-based biodiesel company, to challenge the commission's strict regulations and the necessity of using the approved additive.
"We point blank asked the TCEQ why they have a problem with us selling biodiesel if the EPA doesn't?" said Linda Berndt, vice president of government affairs for the company. Earth Biofuels is a partner in the construction of Carl's Corner, a truck stop 60 miles south of Dallas, that will offer a variety of types of diesel, biodiesel blends and gasoline for drivers. The truck stop is expected to open in September.
The TCEQ issued a state implementation plan, which has air quality figures the commission must meet, and it can't achieve those numbers if it allows biodiesel to be sold in the 110 TxLED counties, Berndt said.
"We understand where they're coming from, but right now there's so little biodiesel sold in Texas compared to diesel, the impact is de minimis," Berndt said. "There's a reluctance from investors to put more money in the state of Texas to grow the industry because of the uncertainty."
While 2 percent seems like a small increase in emissions, Brown, who works for TCEQ, said the increase makes a big difference.
"There's about a 5- to 10-percent reduction in NOx over traditional, federal-type diesel," he said. "So when you're talking about [B20] that reduces that figure by 2 percent, it makes a big difference in the amount of emissions that can be generated in the TxLED areas."
If Earth Biofuels and other biodiesel blend companies are required to use the additive, which is believed to prevent the 2 percent increase, they face being priced out of the market.
"The additive will cause the fuel to increase 4 to 7 cents per gallon," Berndt said. "We won't be competitive at that price, and we don't believe the additive is necessary since B20 is NOx neutral."
Brown said the commission is expecting that an additional additive will be approved by the end of the year.
"The process of getting an additive approved could take as long as one to three months if everything goes smoothly," he said. "It all depends on how fast companies get the paperwork to us and get their testing done."
Regardless of whether or not another additive is approved, the plan still expires Dec. 31. Currently, the EPA is trying to find funding for a program it proposed, which would provide more up-to-date data on NOx emissions from biodiesel blends, Rennie said.
"The Collaborative Biodiesel Test program would use newer engines and a select variety of biodiesel blends," she said. "The time line for this project is 18 months once we get the funding."
McCormick said it's not clear that biodiesel makes NOx go up 2 percent and it's also not clear that reducing NOx emissions is actually going to fix the ozone problem.
Berndt said she wants the TCEQ to allow the EPA to conduct their study before requiring biodiesel sellers in Texas to use the additive.
"We're not saying break the rules for us or do anything illegal, but is there still a way to sell the fuel until we can figure out its NOx impact?" she said.
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