Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Biodiesel is love.

Did you know that using biodiesel reduces emissions by 78%? When reading the article "School Children Endagered by Bus Emissions,Study Says"( which you can find at http://chalk.richmond.edu/elements/articles/bus_emissions/index.html ),According to the Union of Concerned Scientists studies of the effects of diesel emissions on children's health, "diesel school bus emissions are contributing to the deteriorating lung capacities of children, as well as increasing their risks of ashma, heart disease, bronchitis, lung cancer,allergies and premature death." Statistics show that ashma is currently the most prevalent cause of absences in the state of New Jersey, where the study was taken. The UCS stated that recent studies have found that polluted air can concentrate inside school buses and cause the 16,000 New Jersey children riding the buses to breathe air that is nearly 10 times more concentrated with particules and soot than they would inhale standing on the side of the road. With biodiesel these emissions would be signifigantly reduced, helping to better the health of these students, as well as students around the country.

Even a B5 mixture of biodiesel reduces emissions by 10%, which is showed in the graph above.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

First blog post of the year? Arielle and T.J reporting for duty. We are Seniors this year and our Biodiesel 1 class at Key West High School is so excited to begin the projects we have lined up for this year. Some projects we have this year include: Fixing up an old 1985 Mercedes that has been converted to run on pure biodiesel, fixing various planter boxes for shrubs and other small plants, building a stand for our turbine sensor that the biodiesel class last year built, putting locks on our chemical drawers, running pipes through a cistern to water all of our newly fixed planters, and last but certainly not least, writing and completing a grant form so we can win the money to pay for it all. During all of these projects T.J. and I will be here to keep you posted as we make our little island a better place to call home, a cleaner more environmentally friendly home.


 Price comparing cement for our various projects!
 James and the crew looking for supplies and comparing prices.

Lauryn having some fun in Home Depot!