Office of Campus Sustainability

The present BGSU lawn mowers were converted to allow use of used vegetable cooking oil. The process of upgrading lawn mowers started in 2008 by the Alternative Fuel Program Campus Operation technical team.

Our approach did not involve any modification to the diesel engine. Our technical team decided to implement a two-tank system for using the alternative fuel (cooking oil). In addition to the second tank-added, converting the diesel powered lawn mowers to run on used cooking oil requires additional controls like: 3-way valve, temperature float switch, relay, and cube relay timer.

Process Overview

	1. Fryer BGSU Dining Services uses 100% Vegetable oil (peanut)
	2, Collection station Every BGSU Dining Services kitchen contains a collection station for used cooking oil.
	3. Transport A vehicle equipped with special pump and tank collects the used cooking oil.
	4. Filtering The used cooking oil undergoes three stages of filtration using 400-, 200-, then 5-micron filters
	5. Special tank Every mower is equipped with special tank.
	6. Mowing Green The grass at BGSU is mowed using green energy.