Butter sculpture to be biofuel

New York City local paper Newsday reports on the New York State Fair's butter sculpture (pictured above) that will be turned into biofuel.

The 900-pound work of dairy art will be converted to biofuel by Syracuse's State University of New York (SUNY) College of Environmental Science and Forestry:

"'Butter is 80 percent fat and oil and 20 percent water and protein,' [says Dan Nicholson, a graduate student and research support technician in the college's chemistry department.] The water and protein is thrown away. Then the oil and fat is clarified to make it pure and clean and processed into biodiesel fuel. 'With 900 pounds of butter (from the sculpture), we can make 96 gallons of biodiesel,' Nicholson said."

The ESF college is already pretty eco-friendly; already 40 percent of its vehicles use renewable energy sources.

Read the full story: NY college will use butter sculpture for fuel