By BJ Austin
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-829518.mp3
Dallas, TX – One Dallas County school bus can now run on old French Fry grease. KERA's BJ Austin says it's part of a groundbreaking bio-fuels project.
(bus starts) That's the Dallas County Schools' Fryer Flyer starting up. It's a specially outfitted school bus that can run on homemade bio-diesel or pure recycled vegetable oil. President of Dallas County Schools, Larry Duncan, says this is the first program of its kind in the state.
Duncan: While others are using virgin food oil to produce bio-diesel, we've gone a step farther. We've developed a system that will run on straight vegetable oil. The Fryer Flyer has been in testing for over a year and a half, and the future looks great for grease machines.
Duncan says they've invested 80 thousand dollars to build a plant that takes donated cooking oil, and uses it to make bio-diesel, which now powers half the fleet of 1700 schools buses. Duncan says that means a savings of 400 thousand dollars a year in fuel costs. And he says those savings will grow when the buses are retrofitted with the dual fuel system that runs on bio-diesel, then automatically switches to pure vegetable oil, once the engine gets hot enough.
Molly Rooke with the Sierra Club was on the inaugural Fryer Flyer ride.
Rooke: You save money, and it's better for the environment, and better for the students. I don't see any way it can lose.
Larry Duncan says the speed at which they can rev up their bio fuels program depends on local restaurants donating their used cooking oil. Duncan says when it comes to getting 70 thousand students to and from school each day GREASE is the word.