University of New Mexico
Students make engine that runs on oil
ALBUQUERQUE – A class at the University of New Mexico rebuilt a car’s engine to run on vegetable oil.
The students in the university’s Introduction to Environment, Science and Technology course converted a 1985 Volkswagen Jetta GL Turbo Diesel in about six hours, said Fiona Sinclair, the course instructor.
“The car is cleaner burning, and the vegetable oil doesn’t hurt the engine,” she said.
Sinclair said she purchased the car and the biodiesel conversion kit last semester but wasn’t able to do anything with them until now.
Rick Bustos, a student in the course, said anyone with a set of tools could convert a diesel-fueled vehicle to run on vegetable oil.
Bustos said burning biodiesel fuel cuts car emissions and lowers the sulfur and nitrogen released into the air. He said the car doesn’t burn fossil fuels and doesn’t emit carbon dioxide.
Sinclair said it drives like a normal gasoline-powered car, except it smells like vegetable oil.
University of Oregon
Student dies after falling down chimney
EUGENE – A University of Oregon senior died Saturday night after falling 14 stories down a chimney shaft while visiting a friend at a downtown Portland, Ore., apartment complex.
Portland Fire & Rescue found Timothy D. Buras, 22, buried beneath three to four feet of ash at the bottom of the chimney shaft in the building’s boiler room at 11:55 p.m. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Investigators believe Buras, a public policy, planning and management major, climbed to the chimney area and stepped onto the covered shaft, according to The Associated Press.
“There was a ladder leading up to it that was blocked off,” A.J. Jackson, a spokeswoman with the Portland Fire Bureau, told the AP. “Somehow they took extraordinary measures on their own to get up there, which basically means they were someplace they weren’t supposed to be.”
Buras was planning to graduate in spring and wanted to pursue a career working for nonprofit organizations.
