Sustainability

CU's Solar Power Move: East Campus Array

Anna Tolette — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 20:56:40 +0000

CU's Solar Power Move: East Campus Array Anna Tolette Tue, 11/12/2024 - 13:56

Kelsey Yandura

Colorado is famous for generous levels of sunshine — and CU is looking for ways to harness those rays for more than just vitamin D.

In one of the latest steps by campus leadership to drive down emissions and increase energy efficiency, the university is scheduled to begin construction next summer on the East Campus solar array, a two-acre, ground-based panel system with a $7.8 million price tag. The project will be the largest of CU Boulder’s 16 existing solar arrays, all of which are located on Main Campus buildings.

“We’re aiming to source about 10 percent of our electrical usage from renewables,” said Chris Ewing (EnvDes’96), vice chancellor for infrastructure and sustainability at CU Boulder. “This project will get us up there closer to 4 or 5 percent, halfway to our goal.”

The 1.1 megawatt ground-mounted solar array is projected to offset 1.4 million kilowatt hours annually, amounting to about 1.3% of CU Boulder’s annual electricity usage.

The project supports CU’s Climate Action Plan, which aims to reduce campus emissions 50% by 2030 and completely decarbonize by 2050.

“We’re in the midst of a climate crisis, and we need to do our part to reduce our carbon emissions,” said Ewing. “The other part of the argument is that it makes good business sense. If we invest in solar panels now, that’s 1.1 megawatts of power that we don’t have to worry about month after month. It will pay for itself after 20 years.”

Submit feedback to the editor

Photo by Glenn Asakawa

CU is scheduled to begin construction next summer on the East Campus solar array, the largest at CU Boulder.

Off

Traditional

Fall 2024

White

Wearable Gelatin: Fashion’s Newest Textile

Anna Tolette — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 17:21:59 +0000

Wearable Gelatin: Fashion’s Newest Textile Anna Tolette Tue, 11/12/2024 - 10:21

Dan Strain

Approximately 92 million tons of textile waste is generated globally per year, according to research. CU researchers envision a different future for fashion.

A team led by Eldy Lázaro Vásquez (PhDCTD’25), a doctoral student in the ATLAS Institute, is busy developing methods to make recyclable clothes from gelatin, the common foodstuff in products like Jell-O and marshmallows.

The team developed a DIY machine that spins textile fibers made from gelatin. These “biofibers” feel a bit like flax fiber and dissolve in hot water within a few minutes to an hour.

“When you don’t want these textiles anymore, you can dissolve them and recycle the gelatin to make more fibers,” said Michael Rivera, a co-author of the research and assistant professor in the ATLAS Institute and Department of Computer Science.

The machine, which is small enough to fit on a desk and costs just $560 to build, heats up the gelatin and uses a plastic syringe to squeeze out droplets of the mixture. Two sets of rollers in the machine then tug on the gelatin, stretching it out into long, skinny fibers — not unlike a spider spinning a web from silk.

“With this kind of prototyping machine, anyone can make fibers,” Lázaro Vásquez said. “You don’t need the big machines that are only in university chemistry departments.”

She added that across the U.S., meat producers often discard gelatin that doesn’t meet quality control standards. Lázaro Vásquez bought her own gelatin, which comes as a powder, from a local butcher shop.

Lázaro Vásquez envisions that designers could tweak the chemistry of the fibers to make them a little more resilient — you wouldn’t want your jacket to disappear in the rain. They could also experiment with spinning similar fibers from other abundant natural materials like chitin, a component of crab shells, or agar-agar, which comes from algae.

“We’re trying to think about the whole lifecycle of our textiles,” said Lázaro Vásquez. “That begins with where the material is coming from. Can we get it from something that normally goes to waste?”

Submit feedback to the editor

Photo courtesy Utility Research Lab

Researchers at the ATLAS Institute at CU Boulder hope their DIY machine will help designers around the world experiment with making their own, sustainable fashion and other textiles from a range of natural ingredients—maybe even the chitin in crab shells or agar-agar from algae.

Off

Traditional

Fall 2024

White

Jamie Seward on Recycling Flowers & Spreading Joy

Anonymous — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 06:00:00 +0000

Jamie Seward on Recycling Flowers & Spreading Joy Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 07/16/2024 - 00:00

Tom Kertscher

Flowers have the power to improve your physical and mental well-being — even more so if they are fragrant, according to peer-reviewed research. That’s part of what Jamie Seward (PolSci’97) was after when, late last year, she revived Repeat Roses, a zero-waste solution for event florals that closed its doors during the COVID-19 pandemic. Past clients include the Super Bowl and Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle.

Mainly located in Southern California, Arizona and on the East Coast, Repeat Roses transports flowers from events such as weddings and corporate events, rearranges them into smaller bouquets and delivers them to nonprofits like homeless shelters, hospitals or nursing homes. Later, a team picks up the flowers for composting and her clients receive a receipt for their charitable donation.

Seward, a Navy veteran and former attorney, also serves as senior associate director of alumni relations for Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore.

What inspired you to take over Repeat Roses?

I have a passion for people, I have a passion for the planet and I want to leave the world a little better than I found it.

What’s the status of your business?

It’s what I like to call a ‘restart-up’ — it was a start-up and we’ve restarted it. We are up and running, we can operate anywhere in the U.S., and we’re hoping to get the word out. It takes time for word to spread that we’re back in business.

What’s it like when you deliver flowers?

There’s nothing quite like seeing the faces of the people in a homeless shelter, both the staff and the residents, and the joy on their faces when they see flowers — which are considered a luxury — brighten up their space. They’re worried about the basics, and to have something beautiful and joyful, it elevates everyone’s mood, it makes everyone feel better and it brightens up their environment.

Why do you compost the flowers?

It’s more advantageous for the environment for flowers to decompose naturally, versus putting them in a plastic bag in a landfill.

Did anything from your CU Boulder experience guide you into doing this type of work?

I was in the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority at CU, and there was often a philanthropic aspect to our activities. So, it was ingrained in me very early that helping people is something I wanted to do in as many aspects of my life as possible.

Learn more about Repeat Roses at @RepeatRoses on social media or at repeatroses.com.

Submit feedback to the editor

Photo courtesy Jamie Seward

In Southern California, Jamie Seward (PolSci’97) leads Repeat Roses, a zero-waste solution for event florals. Past clients include the Super Bowl and Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle.

Off

Traditional

White

Making Tennis Sustainable

Anonymous — Mon, 06 Nov 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Making Tennis Sustainable Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 11/06/2023 - 00:00

Christina Fang

Ryan Burbary (Acct, Fin’22) is owner of Velociti Tennis, a Boulder-based company committed to limiting single-use plastics and incorporating biodegradable technologies for products. In 2022, Burbary created the world’s first fully biodegradable synthetic tennis string, which he hopes will reduce the thousands of pounds of tennis string that end up in landfills each year.

Why did you choose to work in the tennis industry?

My dad owns tennis retail stores, so I grew up around tennis my whole life. I’ve seen the waste that happens. Whether it’s cutting out strings, putting a new grip on a racket or throwing tennis balls away, I knew there had to be a better way. Biodegradability seemed to be the best way to do it. People realistically won’t completely change their buying habits for sustainability. But if it’s an added benefit to the products they already enjoy, there is a better chance of making
a difference.

What was the process of making the string like?

Growing up, I accumulated knowledge on the materials used to create tennis products. During this time, I found an additive in other manufacturing industries that makes their products biodegradable. I made the connection that this additive could be used in the tennis industry. Once our factory implemented the additive to our tennis string, I immediately sent it for testing with the United States Racquet Stringers Association to do a full play test. None of the testers knew it was biodegradable, and it scored highly on performance.

How would you like to influence the future of sports equipment?

The biodegradable technology we utilize in our products can easily be implemented in industries beyond tennis. One local string brand may make a small impact in terms of sustainability, but if I get a national sports retailer to implement this technology, it would make a huge difference. Most tennis strings sit in the landfill for hundreds of years, but the string I created would biodegrade in just three to five years.

What are your future goals?

First, I’d like to expand our current line to create more sustainable products. Second, I’ve always wanted to do my own thing as an entrepreneur. I am currently working a finance job that I enjoy, but I would one day love to make Velociti my full-time job.

What advice do you have for recent graduates looking to be entrepreneurs?

The hardest thing for me is having patience. It’s easy to want and expect the things you want to get done quickly, but you have to remind yourself that things take time. And find some good mentors you can bounce ideas off of. I have a great one, CD Bodam (PE’69), a family friend in the tennis industry. Having him as a mentor has made a huge impact on my time in this industry.

Submit feedback to the editor

Photo courtesy Velociti Tennis

Ryan Burbary is owner of Velociti Tennis, a Boulder-based company committed to limiting single-use plastics and incorporating biodegradable technologies for products.

Off

Traditional

Fall 2023

White

10 Environmental Milestones at CU Boulder

Anonymous — Mon, 03 Feb 2020 19:12:57 +0000

10 Environmental Milestones at CU Boulder Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 02/03/2020 - 12:12

The first Earth Day was held across the United States on April 22, 1970. It motivated student organizers at CU Boulder to push for an institution dedicated to sustainability and later that year the Environmental Center was born. Fifty years later, CU’s environmental center continues to lead the way in sustainability across campuses worldwide. Here’s 10 major milestones in CU’s green history.

First university to create a student-led Environmental Center. (1970)
Created the first-ever campus-wide recycling program. (1976)
Provided comprehensive bus passes for all students, the first of their kind. (1991)
Began the purchase of renewable energy credits. (2000)
Installed the campus' first solar panels on the UMC. (2004)
Created the Sustainable CU Grant. (2005)
Became the first university to pledge carbon neutrality. (2007)
Created the Zero-Waste Stadium program at Folsom, another first for NCAA D1 schools. (2008)
Joined as a founding member of the University Climate Change Coalition. (2018)
Became the first university to sign the UN's Sports for Climate Change Action Framework. (2019)

Photo by Glenn Asakawa

Off

Traditional

White

Look - Playground

Anonymous — Fri, 01 Sep 2017 07:27:01 +0000

Look - Playground Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 09/01/2017 - 01:27

Christie Sounart

At Kendall Apartments, an affordable housing community in Lakewood, Colo., children play Nerf wars, soccer and “groundies,” the don’t-touch-the-ground version of tag. They swing from monkey bars and scale a rope net amid the smell of fresh cedar.

Resident parents are thrilled — their children, about 65 in all, now have a safe and spacious space to play. The old area was small and crumbling.

Open since June, the new playground is the latest studio project by undergraduate environmental design students at CU Boulder. Predecessors dreamed up and built a tree office and a sustainable bathhouse.

The six-month project, led by instructor Jeremy Ehly, involved interviewing parents and children, obtaining zoning permits, regrading the site and designing and building four separate play areas. The 18 CU students also raised more than $36,000 for material costs, including a $25,000 donation from the Northeast Denver Housing Center.

“When we first started the semester, I was completely taken aback by how ambitious we were attempting to be,” said Jesse Koenig (EnvDes’17).

But they pulled it off, to squeals of joy.

“While we were putting our finishing touches on and cleaning up everything, the kids kept asking us, ‘Is it ready, can I play?’” said senior Anne Mosites (Arch’18). “We had to power wash everything as our last step and the kids started playing the minute we were done; they didn’t even care that it was soaking wet.”

The CU students felt good, too — and were ready for more.

Said Ehly, the instructor, “They’ve already been pitching me projects.”

Photos by Jeremy Ehly

All work, extra play.

Off

Traditional

White

Campus Green Effort No. 1 in Country

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 07:00:00 +0000

Campus Green Effort No. 1 in Country Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 12/01/2009 - 00:00

CU-Boulder is working on a four-phase strategy for an 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in the next 40 years. Above Melissa Mora (EnvEngr’06) stands in front of a biodiesel-fueled bus.

This fall Sierra Club’s magazine named CU-Boulder the top “green” university in the nation, a jump up from its No. 2 ranking last year. And the campus earned the highest grade given on a college sustainability report card by the Sustainable Endowments Institute, a Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors project.

These accolades stem from decades of hard work by Buffs who have shown a passion for the protection of the planet.

“The students of the University of Colorado are the heart and soul of our sustainability efforts and have been leaders in environmental stewardship for nearly 60 years,” says Dave Newport, director of CU’s environmental center.

The Sierra Club’s ranking is based on a 39-question survey about environmentally friendly practices in the areas of academics, administration, energy, efficiency, food, purchasing, transportation and waste management. CU-Boulder has made significant progress in these areas since 1976 when the first student-led recycling program began.

Today’s initiatives include trash-free sporting events and buses that run on vegetable oil. Arnett Hall, a residence hall in the Kittredge Complex, along with the ATLAS, law and business buildings, received a LEED gold certification from the United States Green Building Council, which rates buildings based on their sustainability. The UMC addition received a LEED silver certification. And professors of ecology and evolutionary biology are working with ConocoPhillips to produce new kinds of sustainable energy.

This fall Sierra Club’s magazine named CU Boulder the top “green” university in the nation, a jump up from its No. 2 ranking last year.

Off

Traditional

White

Boulder Should Go Nuclear

Anonymous — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 06:00:00 +0000

Boulder Should Go Nuclear Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 06/01/2009 - 00:00

Paul Danish

Cooling Towers

Like more than 900 cities, Boulder has voluntarily committed to meeting the Kyoto Protocol’s greenhouse gas reduction targets, i.e., cut its emissions 7 percent below 1990 levels or about 25 percent below 2008.

And, like all but two of those cities, it is failing to meet its goals.

Boulder spends more than $850,000 a year trying to get Kyoto compliant and has precious little to show for it. Last year, one city program spent more than $260,000 on things like energy audits, insulation rebates, compact florescent bulb discounts and preaching to the persuaded, which got it a thumping 0.6 percent of the way toward its goal.

Which is why I’ve turned into the local nuclear power nag.

Instead of trying to save the world one light bulb at a time, I think Boulder should invest in a nuclear power plant and solve its part of the climate problem once and for all.

Here’s the case:
According to city estimates, in 2007 Boulder produced 1.9 million metric tons of CO2, 57 percent of it from generating electricity from coal and natural gas. It decreased in 2008, but to be Kyoto compliant the city must cut its annual output by an additional 400,000 tons.

So if Boulder switched to nuclear generated electricity, it would meet its Kyoto target more than two times over. Bang. Problem solved.

But what about nuclear waste (I hear you say)? Do as La Belle, France (which gets 80 percent of its electricity from nukes), does. Recycle it.

But surely Boulder doesn’t need a whole nuclear power plant, I hear you say. It certainly doesn’t. Boulder’s electrical needs currently require about 100 megawatts of generating capacity. A typical state-of-the-art nuclear plant produces about 1,200 to 1,400 megawatts. Which means Boulder should partner with a dozen or so other cities failing to meet their Kyoto goals to build a nuclear plant. (Boulder loves to help other people solve their problems.)

But wouldn’t it take years to get a nuclear power plant up and running? Probably. But all the important stuff Boulder does takes 10 or 20 years.

Planning and building the Pearl Street Mall took 16 years. The idea of building the Boulder Turnpike took shape in the 1930s; it opened in 1952. Boulder started lobbying for CU in 1861. It opened in 1877.

But surely Boulderites would never seriously consider nuclear power, would they?

There’s a city election next November. That would be a good time put the question to the voters as an advisory referendum. The answer might surprise you.

Like more than 900 cities, Boulder has voluntarily committed to meeting the Kyoto Protocol’s greenhouse gas reduction targets. And, like all but two of those cities, it is failing to meet its goals.

Off

Traditional

White

Making Gas from Grass

Anonymous — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 06:00:00 +0000

Making Gas from Grass Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 06/01/2009 - 00:00

Todd Neff

Al Weimer (MChemEngr’78, PhD’80) hopes to make green gasoline that would someday be available for around $3 per gallon. Cleaner air will be one result.

In the United States we import about two-thirds of the oil used to fill the tanks of our vehicles. And transportation fuels account for about 30 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Slashing our reliance on foreign fossils could decrease our dependence on foreign governments that often prove as volatile as the oil they export. It also could benefit the environment and slow the pace of global warming.

Weimer, 55, says his technique could make a gallon of green gasoline for less than $3. And he and his team of 10 doctorate and three postdoctoral students recently won a three-year, $1 million federal grant to continue refining the process.

But how did Weimer, who spent 16 years working for Dow Chemical, get involved with green energy? It all started with a process that dozens of oil companies jumped on as the world went to war during the 1930s.

Turning coal into fuel

With a gravelly voice and stocky build, Weimer is the son of a steelworker with an eighth-grade education in Youngstown, Ohio. His father lost his job in the late 1960s, and Weimer remembers his dad delivering newspapers at 5 a.m., driving the morning school bus, sleeping a few hours, driving the afternoon school bus and then working as a security guard into the night. Weimer’s 80-hour work weeks pay a sort of homage to such an ethic.

“You work with Al and you can expect to get e-mails at 4:30 in the morning at least two, three times a week,” says Ryan Gill, chemical and biological engineering associate professor and managing director of the CU-led Colorado Center for Biorefining and Biofuels (C2B2), of which Weimer serves as executive director. C2B2 is a cooperative research and educational center devoted to the conversion of biomass to fuels and other products.

Attracted to math and science at an early age, Weimer pursued his talents up the rungs of academia. While getting his doctorate, Weimer never thought about going into teaching. He focused on energy, in particular coal gasification with fluidized bed reactors. This sounds like a lot of engineering jargon, but fluidized bed reactors transformed the way countries fought during World War II.

First developed in Germany during the mid-1920s, fluidized bed reactors, specifically the Fischer-Tropsch processes, proved to be an ingenious solution for a country rich in coal but poor in oil. It converts pulverized coals into synthesis gas — a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide — and converts it into liquid fuels. The process enabled Nazi Germany to turn coal into high-quality, clean-burning fuel, keeping the German war machine running. Both Great Britain and Japan also produced synthetic fuel during this time period in the hopes of achieving petroleum independence.

Far from a thing of the past, the same process has powered all South African vehicles for more than 30 years, as the country relied on it heavily during its isolation under apartheid.

At Dow Chemical Weimer continued his fluidized bed work with the goal of converting synthesis gas into alcohols, gasoline additives and other marketable liquids. In the process, he learned how to run industrial-grade process equipment, build and run pilot plants and to take economics seriously.

“In industry, cost is a big factor, whereas most academics don’t have a clue or even care what the cost is,” Weimer says.

But he kept a toe in academia through leadership roles in the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and, in his spare time, publishing a peer-reviewed journal article or two a year.

He landed in a Dow scientific group synthesizing superhard metals by fashioning a graphite tube, heating it to seven times the temperature of a kitchen broiler and flowing various powders through it at high speed. Weimer’s rapid carbothermal reduction process now makes the ultrafine tungsten carbide used around the world in high-end cutting tools like drill bits.

Sun and mirrors

The awards poured in. But by 1996, Weimer was concerned with the lack of emphasis on innovation at his employer and, to no small extent, the U.S. chemical industry at large. While applying for a teaching position at the University of Cincinnati, he stopped by CU to round up recommendation letters. They asked him to stay.

Weimer returned to his CU energy research roots. Beginning with a small U.S. Department of Energy grant, Weimer and his team developed a system of mirrors to focus sunlight on a cauldron combining zinc and water to make hydrogen, a fuel some view as the transportation fuel of the future. His solar-to-hydrogen work continues, but the group now uses a related system to focus sunlight on lawn clippings and fallen leaves — known more formally as source-separated green waste — flowing through at high speed, much like the process used to make drill bits.

The result? Synthesis gas, the same stuff coming off Fischer-Tropsch processes Weimer honed as a CU student more than 25 years ago and from which one can make green gasoline, diesel and natural gas.

The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 mandates the annual production of 36 billion gallons of biofuels by 2022, the majority of which will have to come from noncorn kernel feedstock. Today corn kernel feedstocks supply about 9 billion gallons of the fuel, but there are limits. We can only produce about 15 billion gallons annually without running into serious fuel-or-food issues, scientists estimate.

Among other promising types of biofuels are biodiesels brewed from soybean, palm and other plant oils. But these feedstocks provide food for people and will ultimately face similar trade-offs in a world in which our growing population will be increasingly difficult to feed.

Speaking the language

There are other ways to convert biomass to fuel — cellulosic ethanol production through both heating and chemistry being the current front-runner. But unlike competing processes, Weimer says, the sun-cooked green fuels are synthesized hot enough (1,200° C) that there’s no tar to deal with. What’s more, there’s no need to burn part of your input biomass to cook up green fuel, which amounts to a 30 percent loss.

Beyond enabling innovation, Weimer’s years in industry have helped students and colleagues understand the need for speed and the ability to scale the technologies they hope to bring to market, says Carl Koval, CU chemistry and biochemistry professor and executive director of the CU Energy Initiative. The Energy Initiative is working to integrate the university’s extensive research in renewable and sustainable energy with its strengths in climate and environmental science, behavioral studies, policy analysis and entrepreneurship.

Koval said Weimer’s understanding of how to position intellectual property has brought major benefits to the university, as has his ability to speak the language of industry with the Colorado Center for Biorefining and Biofuels in particular, which is supported by state, institutional and industry funds.

“Al could explain the research to these companies and what the value was to them, and that was one of the main reasons they were able to recruit companies into that center,” Koval says. “That would never have happened with a pure academic. They wouldn’t have known what to say.”

Exploring CU’s Energy Initiative

Solving the world’s energy challenges requires the work of experts in climate and environmental science, behavioral studies and policy analysis. As a result, CU’s leaders in these fields joined together in 2006 to form the CU Energy Initiative. CU aims to become a national leader in sustainable and renewable energy research, education and technology commercialization. Here’s what’s happening on campus.

	Lucy Pao Professor Electrical, computer and energy engineering Lucy Pao studies ways to better harness the wind by focusing on the inner workings of turbines. Her research includes improving control over wind loading to decrease turbine damage and avoid shut-downs in high winds, increasing turbine control for greater efficiency, determining turbine placement on wind farms and coordinating control among turbines for maximum power generation.
	Richard D. Noble Professor Chemical and biological engineering Richard Noble’s focus has less to do with developing next-generation renewable energy than it does with stripping carbon dioxide from the exhaust of fossil sources dominating today’s energy infrastructure. In March Noble and colleagues Jason Bara, Dean Camper and Douglas Gin announced a new technology capable of scrubbing carbon dioxide from coal-plant smokestack emissions for $20 a ton, well below the $50 to $100 per ton it currently costs. CU spinoff ION Engineering Inc. is working to commercialize the technology.
	Ryan Gill Associate professor Chemical and biological engineering Managing director, Colorado Center for Biorefining and Biofuels (C2B2) In renewable energy, Ryan Gill’s work has focused on tailoring ethanol-producing bacteria to survive in high concentrations of the very ethanol they produce, thereby allowing for increased yield. In 2007 he co-founded Boulder-based OPX Biotechnologies to develop bacteria optimized for biofuel production by converting cheap biomass into ethanol and other chemicals.
	Ewald Fuchs Professor Electrical, computer and energy engineering Hybrid-electric and all-electric vehicles using a fraction of the fossil fuels devoured by today’s traditional cars demand unique mechanisms to transfer power from motor to wheels. Ewald Fuchs has developed a mechanism called a variable-speed gearless drive train that weighs less than half of today’s electric drive trains per unit power. The savings in weight means increased battery capacity and greater range, which remains a shortcoming of today’s electric vehicles.
	Garret Moddel Professor Electrical, computer and energy engineering Director, Quantum Engineering Laboratory Some of CU’s most interesting solar energy research projects are pursued in Garret Moddel’s Quantum Engineering Laboratory. His team is converting sunlight to electricity using microantennas. Unlike photovoltaic cells, the microantenna-based system converts the sun’s energy into electric current using ultrahigh frequency diodes.

<p>In the United States we import about two-thirds of the oil used to fill the tanks of our vehicles.</p>

Off

Traditional

White

Who Knew ESTER Was So Cool?

Anonymous — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 07:00:00 +0000

Who Knew ESTER Was So Cool? Anonymous (not verified) Sun, 03/01/2009 - 00:00

Mike West, director of education for CU Biodiesel, has taught everyone from postgraduate students to second-graders how to brew their own biodiesel, showing how simple it is to create cleaner, more sustainable fuel from waste.

By using the vegetable-oil waste donated from Boulder restaurants and CU cafeterias, West, an environmental studies major, uses a self-contained biodiesel trailer called ESTER to convert waste into a finished product that is 80 percent biodiesel and 20 percent glycerine.

It can produce as much as 500 gallons of biodiesel a month, which is used by CU’s Buff buses. The glycerine is donated to the CU Recycling Center to be used as a fertilizing agent for composting.

<p>Mike West, director of education for CU Biodiesel, has taught everyone from postgraduate students to second-graders how to brew their own biodiesel, showing how simple it is to create cleaner, more sustainable fuel from waste.</p>

Off

Traditional

White

Sustainability

CU's Solar Power Move: East Campus Array

Off

Wearable Gelatin: Fashion’s Newest Textile

Off

Jamie Seward on Recycling Flowers & Spreading Joy

What inspired you to take over Repeat Roses?

What’s the status of your business?

What’s it like when you deliver flowers?

Why do you compost the flowers?

Did anything from your CU Boulder experience guide you into doing this type of work?

Off

Making Tennis Sustainable

Off

10 Environmental Milestones at CU Boulder

Off

Look - Playground

Off

Campus Green Effort No. 1 in Country

Off

Boulder Should Go Nuclear

Off

Making Gas from Grass

Turning coal into fuel

Sun and mirrors

Speaking the language

Exploring CU’s Energy Initiative

Lucy Pao

Richard D. Noble

Ryan Gill

Ewald Fuchs

Garret Moddel

Off

Who Knew ESTER Was So Cool?

Off