LSU Dining serves hundreds of students every day, but the cooking oil used in one dining hall feeds something other than mouths — the University’s lawnmowers.After it is used to make meals for students, cooking oil from the 459 Commons is converted to biodiesel and used to fuel the lawnmowers maintaining the University’s landscaping.Facility Services has supplemented its regular petroleum diesel with biofuel for about two years, said Fred Fellner, assistant director for Landscape Services.The biodiesel is mixed with regular diesel to create a mixture called B20 or B30, which contains 20 or 30 percent biodiesel, respectively, Fellner said.The oil is converted to biodiesel at the W.A. Callegari Environmental Center, a part of the LSU AgCenter focusing on environmental issues. Bill Carney, head of the Callegari Center, oversees the conversion process.The oil is stored in tanks at the 459 Commons and collected using a homemade vacuum truck that sucks up the oil and stores it in a 125-gallon tank, Carney said.How often the cooking oil is collected depends on how many students are on campus. Collections are made once every two to three weeks during the regular semesters and about once a month during the summer, Fellner said.Carney must separate the usable oil from the waste before the oil can be converted to biofuel.”All the trash like grit, old French fries, chicken fat and anything else that comes out of frying in the cafeteria will settle on the bottom,” Carney said.The oil is then put through a chemical process called transesterification in which it is heated to 130 degrees Fahrenheit and mixed with methanol and lye, Carney said. A reaction takes place, and biodiesel is created within hours.The process occurs in a $10,000 computer-operated reactor, Carney said. An expensive machine had to be purchased so the cooking oil could be converted without extensive time or labor resources the Callegari Center doesn’t have.”We went higher on the front end and got something expensive so we don’t have to spend as much time doing it,” Carney said.Facility Services pays 50 percent of the market value for the biodiesel.”We charge them $1.50 a gallon, and it costs me, if I had to equate my labor and equipment, about $1.25,” Carney said. “I just get a quarter out of them to help defray the costs.”The Callegari Center receives about 50 gallons of oil per week from LSU Dining, Carney said. The biodiesel conversion produces a one-to-one ratio of product, which equals approximately 50 gallons of biofuel per week.That is only a small portion of Facility Services’ fuel usage, which Carney said is about 250 gallons per week.Though the biodiesel use is small compared to total fuel use, Fellner said Facility Services has saved money in the process.”We’ve probably saved about $1,000 up to this point,” he said. “But it’s a small number compared to what we do. We’re at around $50,000 a year in diesel.”Using also limits harmful output caused by petroleum diesel. Biodiesel emits 65 to 80 percent fewer greenhouse gases than regular diesel, Carney said, and can even perform better.”It has lubricating qualities that regular petroleum diesel doesn’t have, so it helps the engine out,” Carney said. “It’s a lot better for the environment, has a lot less soot, has less of a carbon footprint and has no sulfur whatsoever.”—-Contact Ryan Buxton at [email protected]