The 93rd Pennsylvania Farm Show hosts a harvest of renewable energy, including Messiah’s biodiesel project.

The Alternative Energy Harvest area of the Pennsylvania Farm Show is a relatively recent addition to the country’s largest indoor agricultural display event. Here, at one end of the large Exposition Hall, students and staff from Messiah College’s Collaboratory for Strategic Partnerships and Applied Research (the Collaboratory) set up a display of its small-scale biodiesel production process. While this is the first time that the Collaboratory has brought its biodiesel production trailer to the Farm Show, the team has been working over the last five years to perfect a process for converting waste vegetable oil from Messiah’s dining facilities into biodiesel fuel for use in campus vehicles and as a substitute for petroleum heating oils. (more…)