Native American Students Showcase Results of Argonne Biofuels Challenge

For the group of students who presented renewable energy projects at Argonne National Laboratory Thursday, sustainability isn’t just a trend: It’s part of their culture.

Three teams of Native American students came to the lab to showcase the results of their participation in the annual Indian Education Renewable Energy Challenge, supported by Argonne and the Department of Interior, and Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development.

This year’s contest challenged the student teams to develop a method for converting biomass—such as vegetable oil or algae—into biodiesel fuel.

“You’re working on one of the most pressing problems facing our future,” Dennis Mills, a deputy associate lab director at Argonne, told the students. “It’s great to see you working on these projects. No matter how small, they’re important.”

Although practical, the projects were also very personal.

“Energy is native,” said Monique Mousseaux, who was on the team from Albuquerque’s Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute. “We need to incorporate [renewable energy] into our people and bring that back with us.”

Mousseaux’s team used the $3,500 grant it received to implement its proposal to develop a means of extracting the lipids—or fat—from algae and turning it into biodiesel.

The road, however, wasn’t easy for the team. They tried numerous strainers in their attempts to harvest algae grown in kiddy pools: everything from window screens to silk screens to 500-thread-count bed sheets.

“It was a real challenge,” said Nader Vadiee, who coordinates SIPI’s engineering program. “It was aptly named.”

The challenge serves as a tool for helping to solidify concepts learned in the classroom, said Argonne program leader Deon Ettinger.

“If you simply learn you may pass the test but you may not have the confidence in actually learning the material,” he said.

The team from Oneida Nation High School outside Green Bay developed a 27-hour process for converting used vegetable oil donated by a nearby Radisson Hotel into fuel.

Out of seven different oils tested, the students found corn and soy produced the best results. They processed the oil in a 40-gallon hot water heater, which yielded 25 gallons of usable fuel.

They ran a generator at an efficiency rate of 80-85 percent—although in their tests, the students didn’t notice any difference in the power of the biodiesel and traditional diesel fuel.

In a true showing of sustainability, nothing from the process goes to waste. The glycerin byproduct created during conversion can be made into soap.

In this and previous years, students had to complete a project within a very specific framework (last year it was designing wind turbines). But Ettinger said next year he hopes to modify the challenge and open it up to a greater variety of projects.

“We want to make it so teams can approach the challenge in a manner that’s appropriate to their tribe and reservation,” said Ettinger, noting that biofuels proved difficult for many tribal areas because of dry conditions that inhibit growth of the raw biomaterials.

Gerina Tsosie, who is participating in Argonne’s tribal summer internship program, spoke to the students about ongoing opportunities for research at Argonne. She, too, is looking forward to bringing what she’s learned back to her Navajo reservation.

“Mother Earth is such a big thing to us and something we’d like to preserve,” she said. “We have to take care of her because she takes care of us."