Research
There are a number of research projects associated with VBI, conducted by professors and students. If you are interested in doing a research project or an independent study with us, please send us an email!
Ongoing Research
DENSO Gift Powers New Biodiesel Testing Facility
"Vanderbilt School of Engineering has received a $100,000 gift from the DENSO North America Foundation to fund the establishment of a new state-of-the-art biodiesel testing facility. Beginning in the fall of 2008, students from various engineering disciplines will use the Vanderbilt Multi-User Biodiesel Engine Test Facility to investigate diesel engine performance parameters and test campus-produced biodiesel fuels. The biodiesel facility will be used by mechanical engineering students as part of their core laboratory curriculum; mechanical, chemical, and environmental engineering seniors involved in capstone projects in biodiesel characterization and reactor design, and the student volunteers from throughout the University who are involved in campus-wide waste oil recycling and biodiesel production."
Read Full Press Release:
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/news/releases/2007/12/3/denso-gift-powers-new-biodiesel-testing-facility
Fall 2008 Research
Perceptions of Partisanship and Environmentalism: The Spread of Information about the Vanderbilt Biodiesel Initiative
Hana Chmielewski
ANTH 367: Values and the Environment
View Full Report
The Vanderbilt Biodiesel Initiative (VBI) is a student organization which converts used cooking oil from the campus dining facilities as well as a few local restaurants into biofuel for the use of some of the university's diesel vehicles. Using biodiesel to fuel these vehicles releases fewer carbon emissions than using petroleum-based diesel, which signals to the Vanderbilt community that VBI addresses the issue of global warming. Because the Initiative is a new organization and it is linked to environmental concern, knowledge about VBI could be indicative of the spread of environmentally charged information within the Vanderbilt community. This research seeks to determine the effects of environmental awareness and political views on the perception and spread of knowledge about VBI.
Scale-Up of Vanderbilt Biodiesel Initiative
Brian Sparrow, Stuart Hartley, Hudson Chen, Tiffany Fisher, Olutosin Bamigboye
ENGM 273: Systems Engineering
View Full Report
The Vanderbilt Biodiesel Initiative is a student-run sustainable group that collects used vegetable oil from restaurants and processes it into biodiesel for use in any diesel vehicle at Vanderbilt. Currently, a medium-scale system is operational, but the need and demand for an alternative fuel on campus has developed the interest of expanding the system to supply these needs. This report uses fundamental concepts from systems engineering to explore scale-up opportunities and challenges for VBI.
Summer 2008 Research
Overview Report 2008
Amelia Cousins
View Full Report
Supported by the Vanderbilt Undergraduate Summer Research Program (VUSRP), Amelia Cousins prepared an overview report of the Vanderbilt Biodiesel Initiative. First, it begins with a description of the various aspects of the VBI system and biodiesel production. Then it moves to an analysis of the inputs and outputs of biodiesel production and the usage of byproducts. Next, there is a marginal cost analysis for the fuel and discussion of the inherent uncertainties in the calculations. Following that, a description of current biodiesel use on campus and the real world performance of the fuel and the last sections of the report focus on the environmental impact of the facility and system itself and examine the travel of the inputs.
The School for Science and Math
http://theschool.vanderbilt.edu/
The School for Science and Math at Vanderbilt is a joint venture between Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools. The School offers high school students a four-year, interdisciplinary, research-centered learning experience at Vanderbilt University.
At the end of their first year in the School for Science and Math, the inaugural freshman class undertook a three week summer research course. As part of their summer research, students worked in groups of three to investigate various questions about bio-soap (a by-product of our biodiesel production) using research tools and techniques they learned during the course of their freshman year. Teams presented the results of their projects (posted below) in a seminar format at the conclusion of the course.
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Effectiveness of Bio-soap, Soap, and Water
By Noel Richards, Katie Roland, Brittainy Tidwell
View PowerPoint
Problem: "What is the effectiveness of washing your hands with water, regular soap, and bio-soap to wash off oil, dirt, pen, and sharpie?
Hypothesis: "We believe that the water will be the least effective, then the bio-soap and then the regular soap will be the most effective because it is more specifically manufactured. The dirt will be the easiest to wash off, then the pen and may and sharpie will be hard because mayo leaves a residue and sharpie is permanent ink."
  
Conclusions: "Bio-soap was the most effective method of removing substances. The water was least effective, but all were significantly helpful. The pen and Sharpie were the hardest to remove. The Mayonnaise left an oily residue. The dirt came off every time. We can check chemical composition and check for unmatched chemicals. There could be something in Bio-soap that makes it a better substance remover."
Phosphate and pH Linkage to Overall Effectiveness of Plate
By Ashley, Chris, and Rezzan
View PowerPoint
Problem: "Our purpose was to determine how effective biosoap is compared with water and traditional soap, and to find how phosphate concentration and pH is linked to overall effectiveness of the soap."
Hypothesis: "We believed that the traditional soap would be most affective because we believe that it will have a higher concentration and neutral pH. Therefore, we think that these factors will increase the overall effectiveness of the soap."
  
Conclusion: "Our hypothesis was wrong. The bio-soap proved to be most effective. Our data shows that this could have been a cause of the pH level, which were very basic. This leads us to believe that pH is a very important factor in soap, while phosphate concentration showed little to no trend. USE BIOSOAP!"
 
Regular Soap vs. Bio-soap; How do they compare in the home?
By Hannah, Anh, Kevin
View PowerPoint (Office 2007)
Hypothesis: "We hypothesize that Biosoap will kill the same amount of germs as regular soap."
  
Conclusion: "The bio-soap was just as good or better than the regular non anti-bacterial soap. The next step would be to figure out how to further improve the efficiency of bio-soap."
Suds vs. Bacteria; Does the Amount of Suds Correlate with the Effectiveness of the Soap?
By Zuki, Alan, and Aziza
View PowerPoint
Problem: "Your hands are filthy. You turn on the water and rub on soap. Immediately, white suds start to form. Why are there suds? Could they possibly help clean your hands better? In that case, would more suds mean your hands are cleaner?
Hypothesis: "We predicted that if we tested the effectiveness and the amount of suds from each soap, then we would find a correlation between the two results."
  
Conclusion: "There appears to be a correlation between the amount of suds and the cleanliness of the soap. The Bio-soap was the least efficient at cleaning up bacteria. The Anti-Bacterial soap was the most efficient at cleaning up bacteria."
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Glycerin Purification
Eliot Alexander
"I tested the process of adding acid, in our case sulfuric or hydrochloric, to the glycerin byproduct, which splits the mixture into 3 layers: a more purified glycerin, free fatty acids, and a salt. The purified glycerin layer is acidic and can be neutralized to obtain glycerin of around 90% purity. The other two layers can be composted or used as fertilizer. The inconsistent results obtained from my tests suggested that the glycerin in the bin is not homogenous, and increasing the scale of the separation process would be very difficult and imprecise."
