Students discover new type of fuel

By Jamie Teibel
Staff Writer

Three Purdue students have discovered a product that will decrease the cost of fuel oil and lessen the affects of petroleum pollution on the environment.

Bekki Kennedy, Louis Cassens, Matt Peter, seniors in the School of Agriculture, and team adviser Anton Sumali, assistant professor of agricultural and biological engineering, have created a home heating fuel that mixes 20 percent soybean oil and regular heating oil, resulting in an oil that is cheaper and burns cleaner than regular fuel oil.

The students were participating in the seventh annual New Uses for Soybeans Student Contest sponsored by the Indiana Soybean Board and the Purdue School of Agriculture.

"The soybean oil burns cleaner, smells better and most importantly, is easily renewable," said Sumali. "The use of the oil for heating will reduce the need for petroleum and its associated environmental impacts, such as oil leaks, drilling in environmentally sensitive areas and air and water pollution."

The students won first place and $4,800 for their new soybean oil.

Cassens is using his share for graduate school and parts for his antique tractor collection. Peter is putting his money toward paying off loans. Kennedy is using her share of the money to pay for Maymester classes so she can graduate in August.

Kennedy got Cassens and Peter involved in the contest. One of her friends won it last year and Bernie Tao, associate professor of agriculture engineering and food science, discussed the contest with her in class.

Peter agreed to be involved because he knew they all worked well together, had good ideas and had the chance of getting a patent.

"Of course, the money didn't hurt," he said.

"We thought it would be fun to do testing and research and figure out what we could develop," said Cassens.

They asked for advice from Sumali, who encouraged them to enter the contest and eventually became their official faculty adviser.

"First, I taught them how to find patent documents on the Internet and how to do library searches for literature on what soybeans have been used for in the past," said Sumali.

He also suggested methods of testing the product, such as the use of the bomb calorimeter, a device used to measure the heat contents of substances, and how to conduct the test.

Kennedy said the project started out as something to do for fun but soon the team wondered if they could do more with it.

"We formed our own team before we knew what we were doing," Kennedy said, "The three of us together covered every part."

The team began brainstorming for ideas in September finding ideas within the group as well as outside sources and patent searches.

With Kennedy doing the chemistry, Peter covering marketing and finances and Cassens' knowledge about oil, coming up with a product wasn't too difficult for the team.

They finished in February, having worked on it during their free time for five months.

"It was a very long process," said Kennedy. "We expected more problems than we actually had."

Kennedy, Cassens and Peter are now in the process of sorting out patents for and ownership of the oil. The Purdue Research Foundation is holding the samples.

"We had to sign over intellectual rights, so ownership is a gray area," said Kennedy.

According to John Snyder, associate director for agriculture and veterinary science's office of technology commercialization, the students and their adviser will disclose details about the product to the University, wherein the Research Foundation will review it in terms of patent and commercial viability. If viable, Purdue will try to license the product to companies.

Under the Purdue University executive memorandum B-10, inventors share in any revenues.

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