Spring Break
Professor A Leader in Biodiesel
Christopher Duray
Issue date: 5/27/07 Section: News
Gas prices never seem to decrease, America
seems impossibly chained to a foreign power
for energy needs, and according to Al Gore,
our cars are strangling the environment with
noxious gas. The state of the American energy
industry seems incredibly dismal right
now, but UConn?s own professors have been
hard at work for the last few years constructing
viable alternative fuel sources.
For his work with UConn?s Biofuel
Consortium, Dr. Richard Parnas, associate
professor and director of the chemical
engineering program, was awarded the
Environmental Policy Advisory Council?s
Environmental Leadership award Tuesday.
He said it felt great to receive the award.
The Biofuel Consortium is a group of faculty
and students that began to work toward
the integration of alternative energy into
mainstream society two years ago. Their mission
statement, as found on their Web site,
is "to advance UConn?s biodiesel research
initiative for the greater good of the environment,
and to help our nation gain energy
independence."
"Biofuel is essentially a fuel derived from
biological resources," Parnas said. "For example,
[the fuel] ethanol is derived from corn.
But there are others like biodiesel that come
from plant-derived vegetable oils. The main
idea is that you have a renewable resource
providing the input to make the biofuel."
The idea of using alternative fuel has been
around for a while. Some Web sites offer
"conversion kits" to modify diesel engine
cars to run off of waste products. For about
$1,000, an old car can be fixed to run off of
used vegetable oil from deep fryers - easily
obtainable at local restaurants. Such kits are
often not as handy as they seem though; they
are difficult to construct and are prone to
seems impossibly chained to a foreign power
for energy needs, and according to Al Gore,
our cars are strangling the environment with
noxious gas. The state of the American energy
industry seems incredibly dismal right
now, but UConn?s own professors have been
hard at work for the last few years constructing
viable alternative fuel sources.
For his work with UConn?s Biofuel
Consortium, Dr. Richard Parnas, associate
professor and director of the chemical
engineering program, was awarded the
Environmental Policy Advisory Council?s
Environmental Leadership award Tuesday.
He said it felt great to receive the award.
The Biofuel Consortium is a group of faculty
and students that began to work toward
the integration of alternative energy into
mainstream society two years ago. Their mission
statement, as found on their Web site,
is "to advance UConn?s biodiesel research
initiative for the greater good of the environment,
and to help our nation gain energy
independence."
"Biofuel is essentially a fuel derived from
biological resources," Parnas said. "For example,
[the fuel] ethanol is derived from corn.
But there are others like biodiesel that come
from plant-derived vegetable oils. The main
idea is that you have a renewable resource
providing the input to make the biofuel."
The idea of using alternative fuel has been
around for a while. Some Web sites offer
"conversion kits" to modify diesel engine
cars to run off of waste products. For about
$1,000, an old car can be fixed to run off of
used vegetable oil from deep fryers - easily
obtainable at local restaurants. Such kits are
often not as handy as they seem though; they
are difficult to construct and are prone to
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