Starting next semester, the state of Tennessee will begin paying unemployed workers to take a new class at The University of Memphis that will teach them how to operate a refinery.
The course, called process plant operations, will use The U of M's unique biofuel refinery, which takes grease from the Tiger Den and converts it to biodiesel.
After finishing the class, unemployed workers will be able to work in industries that use refineries, such as the petroleum, ethanol and whipping cream industries.
"When a chemical engineer gets a degree, he can get a job at any chemical company," said Srikant Gir, assistant professor of mechanical engineering. "The same goes for our research."
It took University researchers about two years to build the biofuel micro-refinery, which is unlike any other in the country, said Gir, who is also the refinery's developer.
The University's micro-refinery has everything that bigger biofuel centers have, but on a smaller scale, he said.
"(The refinery) is state of the art," he said. "It's the only complete micro-refinery in the country."
Sen. Steve Cohen announced on Sept. 4 that the federal government had granted The U of M $500,000 for continued research into better refineries like the one that will be used in the class.
Paul Moinester, legislative assistant to Sen. Cohen, said Cohen supported the program because the research is important for workforce development.
"A lot of the work is not research, its job training," he said. "(The refinery) is a smaller version of a real biofuel center and people can train and learn on it."
Students will be able to operate the refinery, which will educate and save The University money at the same time.
The refinery takes campus garbage to make the fuel, which helps make The University more eco-friendly and energy sustainable, said Gir, who is heading up the research on campus.
"The University pays $200,000 a year to remove garbage off campus," Gir said. "I want to take the garbage to make electricity."
Burning organic waste and funneling the gases into a diesel generator can do this, he said.
According to Moinester, moving away from fossil fuels is an important aspect of the research, Moinester said.
"One goal is to transition our economy from an oil-based one," he said. "The University of Memphis will be on the cutting edge."
Deborah Leisure, freshman nursing major, said biofuel research was important because it lessens the country's dependence on fossil fuels.
"It sounds useful, and it saves oil," she said.
Besides advances in alternative fuels, The U of M research will create a cleaner environment, said John Hochstein, chair of the mechanical engineering department
"Asthma is the number one cause of absences in Memphis City Schools," Hochstein said. "Biodiesel produces fewer (air particles), which can aggravate the condition."
Gir said The University's refinery model would eventually be used off campus.
"We are negotiating with local investors to set up a refinery on Beale Street that will be run from a command center on campus," he said.
The refinery would collect waste oil from the restaurants downtown and convert it to biodiesel, Gir said.
Besides training the unemployed, the refinery will also give students and professionals detailed knowledge of how refineries work.
Engineers can use the class, which is open to the general public, to explore other areas in their field, Hochstein said.
"We're going to use it as a training platform over the entire educational spectrum," he said. "It can support doctoral research, training, and educating engineers and technologists."
Students are currently responsible for running and maintaining the micro-refinery, which gives them hands-on experience.
Although the research is bringing national attention to The U of M, some students said the research would remain inaccessible until it was cheaper.
George Spake, junior real estate finance major, said the high price of biofuel would keep him from using it.
"It's not going to work unless it's cheaper," he said. "Ideally, it should cost less than current available energy sources in the long run."
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