On Feb. 1, DePaul started sending its used oil to a new home, the Loyola Biodiesel Lab, to be recycled. The collaboration is part of an initiative by the lab to expand its program to more universities in the Chicagoland area, including Northwestern and the City Colleges of Chicago.

“I saw a partnership between the Loyola Biodiesel Program and DePaul to be an exciting and unique intercollegiate connection,” Megan Hoff, the senator for sustainability for the Student Government Association at DePaul, said. Hoff worked to connect Zach Waikman, the Loyola Biodiesel lab manager, with James Lee, the District Manager for Chartwells at DePaul. “Essentially, I became the liaison between Chartwells, DePaul’s Dining Service Provider, and Zach, with the hopes that Chartwells would agree to give all of their kitchen grease to Loyola to be converted into 100 percent biofuel,” she said.

“I thought it was a good idea,” Lee said. Lee had been talking to Hoff and Waikman about DePaul contributing to the program since September, but needed to take time to make sure that he didn’t break any previous contracts. DePaul had been selling the oil to other recycling companies that had been turning it into products like animal feed, and Lee needed to resolve those contracts before donating the oil to Loyola.

“I wish DePaul had a program that we could donate the oil to,” Lee said.

The Loyola Biodiesel Lab is the first and only university lab in the nation to have an operations license to sell biodiesel. Started in 2007, the lab is moving from its original home to a bigger facility. Originally only working with Loyola and its surrounding community to gather grease to be refined into biofuel, the lab is now transitioning into a more industrial model.

“We are aiming to produce 30,000 gallons of biodiesel a year,” Waikman said. Last year the lab produced 3,000 gallons of biodiesel. As part of the effort to scale up their output, the lab has reached out to other schools to try and get their cooperation in supplying their kitchen grease.

Over the course of a single week the kitchens in the Student Center go through 20-25, 35-pound containers of oil. The oil is used in the seven fryers in the Student Center.

“To have DePaul be able to contribute and participate in such a revolutionary, sustainability-driven project was extremely significant to my agenda for this year,” Hoff said. “On February 1, 2014, the switch was made and DePaul’s oil now goes 100% to biodiesel production right in the city.”

Biodiesel is a renewable, cleanburning diesel alternative, and the first and only EPA-designated advanced biofuel in commercial-sized production, reaching over one billion gallons in annual production. As an alternative to diesel, biodiesel will work in any diesel engine.

The Biodiesel Lab at Loyola is maintained by a fluctuating staff of six to 10 Loyola students based on the grants and research projects that are currently underway. “While all the students help with the production of the oil, the student focuses on their own unique research projects,” Waikman said.

Currently all of the students who work at the lab are from Loyola, but Waikman said that it would be a good opportunity for DePaul students and professors to team up and work on a focused research project that would utilize the lab.

The lab is also involved in outreach programs with local schools. Students from the lab help local students learn about sustainability and green living.

“We have mentored a lot of science fair projects,” Waikman said.