Turning waste cooking oil into biodiesel fuel is no small feat. At Sinclair Community College’s Center for Energy Education, it is a regularity.
The Center for Energy Education took cooking oil used in the school’s cafeteria and converted it into biodiesel fuel, which is now used by Sinclair’s facilities department on campus to power lawn-mowing equipment, according to Shep Anderson, Director of Energy Education.
“A lot of people don’t know that and that’s kind of a neat, interesting story for people to realize,” Anderson said.
The center, created in 2006, concentrates on three specifications in the energy field: alternative energy, energy conservation and community energy consultation.
“The whole mission of the center is to become college-wide for students to understand the conservation of energy,” said George Sehi, dean of Science, Math and Engineering at Sinclair.
Anderson, who was named director of the department in June, has been at Sinclair for 13 years and said he would like to see students, staff and faculty become more involved in the Center for Energy Education.
“We’re at the point now where we want to grow the Center and have a bigger awareness campus-wide and community-wide,” he said. “A lot of students don’t know that we have a Center for Energy Education and we want students to be more aware of that.”
Anderson said there are advantages to solar-powered instruments that students need to be aware of.
“If you put a solar-panel on your roof, you’re eligible for some tax advantages,” he said. “But it has to be installed by a certified professional and there aren’t many of them around.”
The department is currently in the process of developing a workshop that will certify solar-panel installers, according to Anderson.
As the demand for solar-energy instruments increase, the Center for Energy Education plans to give current and future students the opportunity to target related jobs.
“As more and more people learn about those advantages, more and more people are going to need the certified installers,” Anderson said.
Anderson said the foundation is strong for the energy center and he is looking forward to seeing it grow.
“We’re really poised to take some bigger steps in getting more awareness in our college community and getting more people involved,” he said.