Each weekday, buses running on fuel made of used cooking oil transport thousands of Loyola University Chicago students and staff between its north and Downtown campuses.
The environmentally-friendly biodiesel, produced at Loyola’s Searle Biodiesel Lab in Rogers Park, is made of vegetable oil instead of fossil fuels. The process also recycles waste from Chicago area restaurants, museums and other sources, including Loyola’s dining halls.
And anyone can drop off used cooking oil at the lab.
Zach Waickman, who runs the lab as its senior program manager, pointed out jugs and bottles on a pallet.
“Maybe someone deep fried a turkey at Thanksgiving. We’ll turn the oil into fuel,” Waickman said. “The oil goes to really good use.”
But don’t bring lard, pan drippings or petroleum products; the lab only recycles vegetable oil. Waickman also advised against dropping off plastic bags full of oil.
“We get all sorts of weird stuff,” he said.
The lab annually produces about 8,000 gallons of biodiesel for Loyola’s eight buses, after processing around 9,000 gallons of used or expired cooking oil.
Making biodiesel also creates glycerin as a by-product. Each year, the lab uses the glycerin to produce some 1,500 gallons of hand soap found in all of Loyola’s restrooms. During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, the lab also produced hand sanitizer used on campus.
Using biodiesel benefits air quality and helps reduce global warming, Waickman said.
“Burning biodiesel releases less particulate matter — that plume of black soot coming from trucks and buses. Particulate matter is filtered out by our lungs and can lead to different breathing issues,” he said.
Biodiesel emits 50% to 80% less carbon than regular diesel. It can be made from soybean oil and animal fat, as well as used cooking oil. One advantage of biodiesel is that liquid fuels have more power to operate heavy vehicles like buses and run longer than electric batteries.
‘Fueled by fries’
The biodiesel program grew out of an undergraduate class project in 2007. It’s just one initiative that has sprouted from Loyola’s Solutions to Environmental Problems course. Waickman was a student in the original class. Over the years, the course has sparked a campus-wide bottled water ban, the Loyola farmers market and campus apiaries.
The Searle Biodiesel Lab was built in 2013. Two years later, it won an Environmental Protection Agency award as a Safer Choice Partner of the Year.
The facility houses a biodiesel processor, methanol recovery system and soap production equipment, as well as laboratory space for research and quality testing. Eight to 10 Loyola students work part-time there.
On a spring afternoon last week, a student in a white lab coat checked the biodiesel system’s tanks and colorful pipes. In a nearby vat, machinery stirred glycerin to make soap. A sign on a wall read: “Loyola: Fueled by fries.”
The lab’s work “is a great example of a zero-waste production process,” Waickman said. Used cooking oil and glycerin “make additional value-add products the university needs for operations.”
Aiden Geraty, a junior at Loyola, has worked at the lab since October. He rides the university’s buses knowing he helps make them run. And washing his hands in Loyola’s bathrooms is a constant reminder that thousands use the soap he helped make.
“It’s pretty gratifying that the work I’m doing is being used in a helpful way,” Geraty said.
Over the years, universities and high schools across the U.S. have sought the lab’s advice on similar projects.
“There are lots of ways to create high-impact learning opportunities for students that also help build and run the sustainability infrastructure of a school,” Waickman said.
A valuable commodity
Fuel prices are in the headlines as oil prices spike after the U.S. and Israel started a war on Iran in February. Since then, Iran has been effectively controlling the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for global oil shipping.
The price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, has swung dramatically, rising from roughly $70 per barrel before the war in late February to more than $119 at times.
Global affairs regularly shine a brighter spotlight on fossil fuels and alternatives to using them. Soaring gas prices were top of mind when Russia started its war on Ukraine and when the COVID-19 pandemic snarled supply chains.
But no matter what is happening in the world, environmental sustainability has been a constant at Searle Biodiesel Lab. It’s also financially sustainable; revenues from biodiesel and soap fund its operations. Equipment and research are funded by grants and donors.
In addition, the lab’s work is an important part of the university’s larger plans. In 2024, Loyola became the first carbon neutral university in the Chicago area. Its 2015 Climate Action Plan aimed to achieve carbon neutrality by 2025.
The lab is part of a local network that supports sustainability. It buys used cooking oil from Green Grease Environmental, based in Burnham, near Indiana.
Green Grease collects oil in special trucks from about 1,000 local businesses and institutions such as the Art Institute of Chicago and the Shedd Aquarium. It cleans and filters the used cooking oil so it can be turned into biodiesel by Loyola and other facilities.
Since 2012, Green Grease has recycled more than 7 million gallons of used cooking oil. Business has grown and the company expects to recycle 1 million gallons this year.
Green Grease owner Tony Demma said the company is a “triple bottom line” enterprise that makes money while benefiting the environment and creating social impact.
It’s based in Burnham “to help revitalize the area and provide good paying jobs for the local community,” Demma said. Green Grease has about 15 employees.
At the lab, students test for contaminants like water, sediment and free fatty acids. The oil is processed for a couple weeks in closed tanks.
Then the lab sells its biodiesel to Al Warren Oil, the company running the depot that operates Loyola’s shuttles. The university’s buses run on an average blend of 20% biodiesel mixed with diesel.
Over the years, biodiesel technology has improved and disproved misconceptions about the fuel’s performance. Biodiesel demand has grown in the U.S., due to favorable government policies and other factors.
In 2024, 5.9 billion gallons of biodiesel were produced in the U.S., compared to 3 billion gallons in 2021, according to Clean Fuels Alliance America. Biodiesel has potential for many kinds of transportation, including freight and shipping.
Used cooking oil has also become a valuable commodity. In 2020, CME Group, parent of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, began trading used cooking oil futures contracts. The global used cooking oil market is projected to grow from $7.4 billion in 2024 to $12.2 billion by 2034, according to Global Market Insights, due to growing biodiesel demand, government initiatives and other reasons.
Back at Loyola, Geraty finished mixing chemicals at a lab bench crowded with test tubes and equipment. He acknowledged that biodiesel and soap won’t change the world on their own.
“But when you apply an environmental mindset, it can have an impact,” Garity said. “It’s part of a larger effort to be good stewards of the environment.”
Contributing: AP