November 2, 2006 Issue
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Classified Chestnut Hill Local Online Editor Don't Miss an Issue, Tell us what you see or ©2006 Chestnut Hill Local Winner of One |
Local school to make smart fuel Students at Wissahickon Charter School in East Falls will participate in a pilot program that takes vegetable oil from the fryer to the fuel tank — literally. The Smart Fuel Project will provide sixth, seventh and eighth graders with a $15,000 grant to purchase equipment to build a processor to create biodiesel fuel from used vegetable oil. The project is housed and funded by the William James Foundation, an organization dedicated to establishing socially responsible businesses and policies. Shari Freidman, director of the Smart Fuel Project, said the year-and-a-half old program is aimed at inner city school students. “The project is to use the biodiesel process in inner city schools to help teach about the environment in a way that will make a difference immediately,” she explained. The idea is to collect used vegetable oil, known as waste vegetable oil, from restaurants and turn it into fuel. “Restaurants put the vegetable oil they use into barrels once they are no longer using it,” Friedman said. Students will build the processor and use it to create biodiesel fuel. Wissahickon science teacher, Michael Friedman, who is also the brother of Smart Fuel Project director Shari Friedman, will oversee the work set to begin in January. The school has to raise 25 percent of the funding according to the grant’s matching fund requirement. “Every student will participate,” he said. “They will learn about energy and dependence and go through the chemical process.” Students will build the processor during either an after school program or an elective course and then figure out how to distribute the fuel within the community, Michael Friedman said. Project organizers are hoping that the fuel can be used to power the school’s buses fulfilling its ultimate goal. Wissahickon Charter School was founded five years ago to provide students with an environmental curriculum to help them become stewards of the environment, according to one of its founders and current principal Julie Stapleton Carroll. Friedman said he expects the project to yield fuel by the end of the school year. The grant is one of 18 environmental education grants totaling $200,000 given out this year to the mid-Atlantic region by the William James Foundation. Contact staff writer Jennifer Katz at 215-248-8804 or jenn@chestnuthilllocal.com. |
