Area college students build biodiesel filling station
NORFOLK, Neb. — A class project to build a biodiesel mixing/filling station and a field trip to Kansas City wrapped up the academic year for some automotive technology and auto body repair technology students at Northeast Community College in Norfolk.
Under the supervision of instructor Bowdie Otte, eight automotive technology students were challenged to design, build, and test a biodiesel filling station as a semester project. Research on the Internet led to the design for the project.
According to Otte, a mixture of vegetable oil, kerosene, gasoline, cetane boost, and naptha was used to make the fuel. After it was made, it was tested on a V-8 Perkins diesel engine. The first test was run on straight number two diesel and yielded 138 horsepower.
The second test was conducted on straight bio-diesel and yielded 132 horsepower. Tests also indicated a reduction in revolutions per minute of 50 on biodiesel without making pump adjustments.
“The students concluded that if pump adjustments were made, the horsepower and RPM would have been identical,'’ Otte said.
Northeast students involved in the project were Andrew Calvert, Norfolk; Adam Christensen, St. Paul; Michael Guenther, Crofton; Cory Johnson, Ainsworth; Jason Koch, Meadow Grove; Bryan Mohnsen, Leigh; Jarod Olsen, Farwell, and Steven Svitak, Howells.
Some 40 automotive technology and auto body repair technology students also took a field trip this spring to the area Kansas City, where they toured the General Motors assembly plant, the only plant in the world which produces the Malibu, Malibu Max, and Saturn Aera.
They also toured a Harley Davidson motorcycle factory and the Kansas Motor Speedway. They were accompanied by Northeast instructors Roger Carnell, Scott Berg, and Otte.