February Festivities

The month of February was extremely important for us to make our project known to the Houston community. At the beginning of February, we attended and presented our project to the Houston Sierra Club, showing the feasibility and sustainability of our design. We presented alongside other young adults, who discussed wildlife restoration and aquaponic systems. We were able to mingle with interested constituents and answered questions they had after the presentation. We also invited the audience to the Mid-Grant Technical Review (MGTR), our next big event of the month.

To prepare for the MGTR, we met with Tony Perry who gave us feedback and advice on our future presentation. We created a sponsor banner for donations, business cards, flyers, and presentations to showcase at the event. The Tech Team met over the weekend to put together a model of the fuel tank heating system. We used plastic tubing to wrap around a container (to represent the fuel tank) and a thick plastic tube (to represent the exhaust). We wanted to show how the plastic tubing would contain antifreeze and prevent the biodiesel from gelling up. A hand drill rotates the drill pump that gets the antifreeze flowing through the tubing.

At the MGTR, each team lead gave a part of the presentation to the audience, which included our families, industry professionals (including Chris Powers from Houston Biodiesel), and Houston Independent School District representatives. In addition to the model, the Sustainability Team displayed different blends of biodiesel, including coconut oil, restaurant waste oil, and vegetable oil. The Finance Team took in generous donations, and the Communications Team walked around and facilitated discussion over the project and EurekaFest. Overall, our Review was a success! Our next step is to review the feedback we received at the MGTR and begin purchasing tickets for EurekaFest.