Students run car on grease
Heritage classes study alternative fuel sources

By LEIGH DeLOZIER
For the Journal-Constitution
Published on: 06/01/06

A group of Heritage High School chemistry students spent their spring afternoons in an unusual way — trying to make a car run on vegetable oil.

Students in four honors chemistry classes, led by teacher Erin Gawron, spent much of the school year studying biofuel alternatives.

Erin Gawron (ENLARGE)

Jalisa Worrell, Lynette Fears and Rochelle Smalls work on vegetable oil conversion at Honey Creek Automotive in Conyers.

"We spent a lot of time learning how engines work and the differences between different types of engines," Gawron said. "Many of the students didn't understand much about that."

By the second semester, the students were ready to put some of their knowledge to the test. Groups studied various characteristics of biofuels, ranging from a combination ethanol/gasoline fuel to biodiesel fuel made from several feedstocks (canola, soybean and crude peanut oils).

But the students' biggest project was made possible when a local resident donated a 1972 Mercedes 200D to the classes.

Gawron used grant funds to purchase a conversion kit so the car could run on straight vegetable oil instead of diesel fuel, and her students got to work.

"Honey Creek Automotive let us use one of their bays to do the work," Gawron says. "The kids spent a lot of their own time working on the car in the afternoons."

Once a vehicle has a conversion kit in place, the driver uses gasoline to start the car, then manually switches to oil when the engine warms up. "Many people don't realize it, but Rudolph Diesel originally designed his engine to run on peanut or vegetable oil," Gawron says.

Toward the end of the semester, Gawron's students collected vegetable oil from their cafeteria's french fry vats. They ran the oil through a straining process, then began putting it into the Mercedes.

The result? The engine cranked and ran on the vegetable oil, much to their delight.

Gawron plans to continue biofuel studies with her students next year.

"The students have enjoyed working on something that relates to them," Gawron says.

"They realize we really do have alternatives to petroleum if we're smart about it."