A University of Kansas petroleum engineer said she and her colleagues are poised to begin testing biodiesel that costs $1 a gallon.

Professor Susan Stagg-Williams said the fuel consists of used cooking oil, leftover methanol from chemistry researchers and potassium hydroxide — lye — from the hardware store.

“This is what we actually put back into a diesel engine as a replacement for diesel,” Stagg-Williams told KMBC’s Bev Chapman.

Stagg-Williams and her team are preparing to get the alternative fuel into some test vehicles, starting with lawnmowers used by Facilities and Operations at the university.

She hopes that within two years, all of the school’s diesel-burning vehicles and equipment will be running on a 20 percent blend of fuel rather than the current 5 percent. That would include KU on Wheels buses, lawnmowers, tractors and anything else.

“There are no big black clouds as they go up the hills outside the building here since they’ve switched to biodiesel,” Stagg-Williams said.

The project started with a $15,000 grant from the KU student senate. Since then, they’ve received other grants to keep it going.

Duration : 0:2:14

[youtube cxRYy5-ubUA]