CU students alter school bus to run off vegetable oil
Almost everyone makes plans for a summer road trip, like sophomore Ariel Mamane.
But there’s nothing usual about Mamane’s plans.
Mamane, an English and anthropology major, and some friends plan to cruise the open road in a green bus – one that runs on vegetable oil. Mamane said he got the idea when he attended a music festival in Tennessee last summer.
The students are raising money and looking for sponsorships to travel green-style, in a school bus mechanically altered to run off of vegetable oil and other similar grease products.
“This group of people had a green bus with solar panels and people dancing around outside to loud music,” Mamane said. “They were handing out pamphlets that informed people of how they altered the bus and what individuals can do to reuse products and materials.”
Mamane and his friend Drew Long, a sophomore open option major, are seeking CU sponsorship to succeed in their green road trip. They heard of a group of students at the University of California at Santa Barbara getting sponsored by their school to do a similar project.
“We know that not all the Buff buses are used and there are a ton of them that sit in the Buff lot,” Mamane said. “If we could alter a Buff bus to run off vegetable oil, we would be promoting CU as a green campus while doing something super cool over the summer.”
Environmental Center Director Dave Newport thinks the idea is feasible.
“The students will need to raise money independently before requesting sponsorship from CU,” Newport said. “There are so many competing needs right now that we probably couldn’t fund the entire project but if they raised most of the money to alter the bus and needed a little bit more, we could probably help them out.”
Long said his brother altered his 1983 Mercedes to run off vegetable oil.
“He drove from Wisconsin to New York and back last summer for a grand total of $5 in ‘gas,'” Long said.
The actual alteration for the bus to run off vegetable oil and other grease is relatively simple. A space needs to be created in the back of the bus so a grease tank can be placed next to the diesel tank.
You start the bus with the diesel gasoline and let it warm up for a few minutes before using a filtered tube to switch from diesel gasoline to vegetable oil. In order for the bus to run off vegetable oil, the grease has to be hot so heaters have to be installed along the fuel lines.
Mamane calls the project “Option Green.”
“You have an option to go green or not,” Mamane said. “I’m hoping that operation Option Green can help raise awareness for people to understand that it’s your choice to lead a green life.”
Mamane and Long hope to travel from Montana to British Columbia, down through California and back to Boulder in their green bus this summer.
“We want to visit national parks, forests and tons of music festivals,” Long said.
Music festivals seem to be the ideal place for “Option Green.”
“There are so many people condensed in one area at music festivals, looking for something to do,” Mamane said. “A festival is one of the greatest places to do something like this; people seem to be very interested in social and environmental change, making them approachable targets.”
Mamane plans to create brochures that explain the purpose of their road trip in a green bus and what individuals can do to reduce, reuse and recycle in their lives.
“I am going to design the brochures in my Document Design class,” Mamane said. “It is an assignment anyways so I figure I’ll get an A and help my cause at the same time.”
Mamane and Long said they are thoroughly excited about their road trip.
“We hope to travel a lot this summer without emitting too many greenhouse gases and have a good time doing it,” Long said.
Contact Campus Press Staff Writer Heather Koski at heather.koski@colorado.edu.
