Bloom Students' Solar-Powered Oil Recovery Center Moves to Prairie State

Almost a year ago, the students at Bloom High School began writing a $10,000 grant that would help them invent and innovate a way to collect waste cooking oil, filter out the "French fry crusties,"  de-water the oil and keep it sealed against the elements that would harm it (air, water, bugs, etc.).

After an exhausting and exciting school year designing and building what would be known as the Solar-Powered Oil Recovery Center, or SPORC for short, the top five students in the program got to go to MIT in Cambridge, MA, all expenses paid, and showcase the SPORC for the professors, sponsors, investors and the other 13 teams in attendance.

Unfortunately, there is not an appropriate space at Bloom High School to do any field testing outside. The cafeteria is against a north facing, three story brick wall. But when the good Lord closes a door, He opens a window. We got in contact with the Sustainability Coordinator at Prairie State College, Elizabeth Kopowski, and she was ecstatic to bring this program to PSC!

On July 26, 2011, Vincent Redman and myself disassembled the SPORC in my classroom at Bloom High School and re-assembled it at Prairie State. Although the plumbing needs some tightening due to movement in transit, the photovoltaic system is operational and the container is secure against the elements.

We look forward to working with Fratello's at PSC and look forward to making the necessary improvements, modifications and collecting lots of oil, of course.