BAY MILLS - Bay Mills Community College's Research Director Dr. Michael Doyle may have discovered the cure for diabetes. Well, not really, but if he had it his way people will begin using their fatty vegetable oils to fill the gas tanks on their cars instead of using it to make frybread.
And with gas prices hovering around the $3 mark, who could possibly have any reservations about the potential to use recycled cooking grease from the fryers of fast food restaurants to run their vehicles? This vision, much like his ongoing study on wind research, is just one example of Doyle's endless quest to introduce alternative fuels to the folks who reside in the Eastern Upper Peninsula.
"It's all part of my renewable energy portfolio," Doyle said. "Instead of putting all our eggs in one basket, we're trying a bunch of things to see what works best. One of my personal goals is to inform people about all the benefits of alternative energy and hopefully, get them to switch over to [alternative energy sources] when they become more economically viable."
Doyle said he would be conducting a biodiesel demonstration at BMCC this fall, as part of a $60,000 Renewable Energy Education Program grant the college recently received. The one-year grant will focus on introducing students from the Ojibwe Charter School, as well as teachers from the other 31 BMCC-chartered schools in the state, including 12 schools in the E.U.P. school district, to the wonders and benefits of renewable energy resources and environmental stewardship. At the two-day seminar, students and teachers will learn all about biodiesel processing, beginning with harvesting and processing oil seed crops and used cooking oil, and ending with the utilization of the biodiesel fuel in the school buses.
In addition to the biodiesel demonstration, an oil seed crop will be planted on five acres of tribally owned property located on M-221 and Mills Road in Brimley. The parcel of land will include a crop consisting of two acres of flax plants, two acres of canola plants and just less than one acre of nine different varieties of switchgrass. The oil will be extracted from the flax and canola plants when they are harvested in the fall using a seed press and then processed to be used as biodiesel. The switchgrass will also be harvested in the fall, and will be dried, compressed into pellets and then used as a heating source to be burned for fuel in a pellet stove. The different varieties of switchgrass, which are a fast-growing perennial that gives out more BTUs per unit than any other type of grass when burned, will be monitored to see which variety performs best in the region, Doyle added.
While introducing the E.U.P. to the endless possibilities that alternative fuels have to offer is one of the stated goals of Doyle, he said currently, they cannot compete with subsidized energy, such as coal, gasoline, propane and electricity. Because regular energy sources are subsidized by the federal, state and local governments, alternative energy sources, which are not subsidized, are currently more expensive.
Doyle said he predicts the next administration at the federal level regardless of party affiliation, will have a shift in their energy policy and begin subsidizing alternative energy sources. When the playing field is finally leveled, and "green energy" becomes more economically viable, Doyle said the folks in the E.U.P. would be way ahead of the curve.
"I predict that by the time the next administration gets in the playing field will begin to change," Doyle said. "They will be forced to change it. And the more people know about alternative energy sources, as the economics change and it becomes more affordable, they'll already know what's out there. They'll be ahead of the curve."
An "Introduction to Alternative Fuels" meeting will be held on Thursday, June 15, 6:30 p.m., at BMCC's Mikanuk Building. The meeting is being sponsored by the MSU Extension and BMCC and is funded by Project GREEEN.
