While filling up his tank with vegetable oil at Chick-fil-A in the John T. Washington Center, aerospace engineering major Jackson Goss noticed students inspecting a 40-foot bus parked near the courtyard in front of the Student Union on Wednesday.
The bus engine barely purred, far from the normal roar of a diesel engine. Goss drove his 1986 Mercedes sedan to within 10 feet of the bus. Their engines purred in sync.
These were no ordinary diesel engines.
Manufactured by New Flyer, with GM technology, the bus was a diesel-electric hybrid.
A Minneapolis-based company, New Flyer was in Orlando last week to present the bus to Lynx, which has announced it will add 10 to 50 hybrid buses to its fleet in the next five years. An alternative technology transfers to electric power when the diesel fuel is not in use. This reduces emissions, saves fuel and quiets the engine.
Goss' spontaneous visit helped turn the event into an alternative-fuel showcase. Goss uses vegetable oil as the primary source of fuel for his diesel Benz 190D. After retrofitting his car a year and a half ago with a $900 kit, which included filters and heating elements, he now fills up at fast-food restaurants - instead of gas stations.
"I can drive 1,000 miles nonstop," said Goss, whose car gets 35 miles per gallon. He said his car runs more quietly, thanks to the "glycerine in vegetable oil, which helps lubricate the pistons."
Goss came up with the idea after seeing several models of the conversion kit and was inspired as a child while watching the "Veggie Van" on TV.
"It came time for me to buy a new car, and so I asked my parents if I could buy a diesel," Goss said.
With a small investment and a friend's help, he soon converted the engine. Goss paid off the kit within his first year of driving the engine with the money he saved on fuel.
In the past six months, he has reaped the benefits with no costs. He uses 100 percent waste vegetable oil - what is left after cooking nuggets and fries - which restaurants would have to otherwise pay to dispose of themselves.
"It creates lower emissions, such as nitrous oxides," Goss said. "And it's free."
Candidate for Student Government Association Student Body president Matt DeVlieger invited New Flyer to UCF to demonstrate alternative-fuel technology. His presidential platform seeks cleaner fuel for UCF shuttles.
"It's cleaner. It saves money," DeVlieger said. "It's the future."
The University of South Florida is already experimenting with alternative fuel technology. Its campus shuttle, the Bull Runner, has used 100 percent biodiesel fuel in a majority of its buses since August 2002. It gets the fuel from one of the country's largest biodiesel plants, World Energy Alternatives, in Lakeland, Fla.
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