Whiz Kid Creates Homemade Fuel

Today the Elk River High School sophomore is on a quest to solve the world's energy issues. He's off to a pretty good start.

Take the conversation he had last fall with one of the lunch ladies in the school cafeteria. Josh remembers it well.

"She was a little weirded out by it, 'What's that (she said), you want oil? You want the oil; you want the waste oil?'" explains Josh. 

Student competition for the school's old deep-fryer oil had not been particularly fierce to that point, but how else was Josh going to fill those 20 large jugs that now line the back wall of one of the school's science rooms - or for that matter the 600 gallons of used cooking oil he collected in a dumpster behind the school?

What possible use could Josh have for all that old oil? Turns out Josh has been using household chemicals to turn that oil into diesel fuel.

"Here is the diesel that can actually be used straight into an engine," he says, pointing to the amber liquid that has separated from the fats in a storage jug. Minutes later Josh pours the bio-diesel into a pickup truck belonging to the father of one of his friends.

"It has a little bit smaller of a carbon chain than regular diesel does, explains Josh.

The friend appears unconcerned that a high school sophomore has just poured homemade fuel into her dad's Chevrolet truck.

"Josh is smart," she smiles.

He's also just warming up. Josh already has an agreement to collect used cooking oil from a local Chinese restaurant.  He's now in talks with Elk River's school bus provider about selling them his fuel. But that's just to raise some capitol.

"This is just start up," he says.

Read more on the next phase of his plan by clicking here and visit the Facebook page Josh started for the Algae Biodiesel Project by clicking here.