A regular Source feature, Undercurrents explores issues, ideas and events as they develop beneath the surface in the Virgin Islands community.
Like a modern-day alchemist, Michelle Gordon spends much of her time pouring scientific-sounding substances into containers full of a decidedly un-mysterious material – a pinch of sodium hydroxide, a bit of methanol, swirl them around and dissolve them, wash it all with water, dry it with heat – albeit not in a cauldron – extract the glycerin, and what have you got?
Not gold, but something potentially more precious: a bio-fuel that can be used virtually anywhere you might use diesel, including in generators, boats and some land vehicles.
And the basic material? Leftover cooking grease.
A senior at the University of the Virgin Islands, Gordon is working under the director of the university’s Caribbean Green Technology Center, Wayne Archibald.
Another student, junior Tiffany Smith, is following a different track to bio-fuel; she’s exploring microalgae.
As its name implies, microalgae is so small it cannot be seen without a microscope.
It’s already being used in a variety of commercial products, from vitamins and nutrient supplements in processed foods to dyes, anti-aging creams and fertilizer, Smith said. Microalgae also shows up in ice cream and toothpaste.
“Whatever has a creamy substance, usually algae’s used to make that,” she said.
As for bio-fuel, alga offers a variety: gasoline, kerosene, diesel and jet fuel. Those, however, have not been developed commercially yet, Archibald said. He’s hoping the Virgin Islands can help.
The Caribbean Green Technology Center recently submitted papers to Arizona State University seeking support for the creation of a test bed in which alga research can be conducted on a large scale, he said. The project would require a full-time person to manage it and could draw people from the mainland to work on large-scale production of alga products, particularly bio-fuel.
As proposed, the test bed would serve as a site to collect and cultivate algae – which can be genetically altered relatively easily – and provide research for industry and pharmaceuticals, Archibald said.
UVI already maintains a partnership with ASU, whose Arizona Center for Algae Technology and Innovation is a national leader in cultivating alga for commercial use. Last summer, Smith attended an ASU-sponsored workshop in Texas.
To date most of the work with algae has been with fresh water species, she said. The Virgin Islands could open the field to salt water species.
Tens of thousands of species have been identified, but researchers believe far more await discovery.
In contrast to the alga test bed proposal, Gordon’s current work with used vegetable oil is modest.
She said a 2011 study by the V.I. Waste Management Authority indicated that the territory produces enough used cooking oil on a regular basis to make converting it to bio-fuel a viable venture. In fact, currently most of it is collected by private waste handlers and shipped to facilities in Florida where it’s turned into bio-diesel.
Last year Gordon conducted her own limited study, surveying five local restaurants and hotels and one food vendor. Among the six of them, they were producing an average of 2,800 gallons of used vegetable oil every month. She’s been collecting a portion of that for her work.
In the lab, she tests the oil for free fatty acids. These are the fat globules that form as oil is used and reused. The fewer fatty acids there are, the easier it is to produce bio-diesel. If there are a lot of fatty acids, Gordon said she has to take an extra step in the process. “Otherwise, you make soap” instead of fuel.
Once she has decoded the chemical makeup of a batch of oil, she calculates how much sodium hydroxide and methanol to mix in.
The physical process involved is time consuming. “Right now, I do it all by hand,” Gordon said. “It’s just me and everything is by hand. I need to make it (the fuel) on a much larger scale. What I’m missing is a converter” to do the actual mixing.
The cheapest converter costs roughly $800, she said.
Gordon’s immediate goal is to produce enough bio-diesel to keep a generator running, as a way to prove the fuel is practicable. Once she’s convinced the powers that be, then she wants to use the fuel to operate the campus shuttle.
Typically fuel derived from used cooking oil represents 87 percent to 97 percent of the volume of the oil, Gordon said. With a return like that, it’s worth the effort.
Gordon even has ideas for using the main byproduct of the process: glycerin. She envisions private entrepreneurs in the territory using it for making soap. Today making soap is a cottage industry, marketed mostly to tourists, but Gordon believes it could grow into a successful export product if bio-diesel is produced on a large scale.
Like Smith, Gordon had the opportunity to train briefly with a UVI partner. Her experience was with the University of the West Indies, at a bio-fuel facility in Jamaica.
It helped convince her that the industry could be successful in the Virgin Islands. “I think with the right minds and determination, it could happen,” she said.
