Tucked away in a corner of an empty warehouse at McDonnell Horticulture is a $500 homemade contraption that could save the business and its customers thousands of dollars.
The device is a biodiesel converter. It is a gently used water heater and two 55-gallon barrels connected with nongalvinized pipes, valves and tubing. There are a bubbler, a compressor, a heater and a motor.
The converter is a high school science fair project that earns a D-minus for appearance but an A-plus for effectiveness.
It converts old cooking oil that commonly comes from deep-fat fryers at local restaurants to biodiesel fuel for the 16 tractors at the 225-acre nursery on old U.S. 1 in Cameron.
Biodiesel is made by chemically altering the oil -- essentially thinning it down -- to allow it to run in an unmodified diesel engine.
Pat McDonnell, who owns the business, is an innovator who grows ideas as well as he grows plants. He challenges his employees through cutting-edge projects.
"I saw this as an opportunity to take the business to a new level," McDonnell said.
McDonnell, who also has a degree in chemistry, began kicking around the idea of building a biodiesel converter last year. He said it was not a dollars-and-cents decision.
"It started as a summer project for an intern, not as a way to make or save money," O'Donnell said.
In the process of pitching his idea to others, one name -- Daniel Dayton -- stuck out. Dayton was a recent college graduate who has a degree in sustainable agriculture from Warren Wilson College.
Learned on Internet
Smart and inquisitive, he had the right background, a genuine interest and limited time on his hands.
"He was ideal for me," McDonnell said. "Come June or July, I don't have a lot of work for extra people, so he was perfect for the job."
Dayton is a Peace Corps volunteer who leaves for Mali in West Africa this July. McDonnell describes the tall redhead as someone with "with a little mad scientist in him." Not surprisingly, Dayton took to the project right away.
He learned how to create the homemade device on the Internet. Hours of research and experimentation performed over several months were fraught with ups and downs, successes and failures, and some unintended outcomes.
"One time we made soap," Dayton said.
