LEAD
COVER STORY: Winners of MPowered's 1000 Pitches
By Nicole Bowling and Allison Goldstein
Photographs by: Anja Kreibaum and Marissa Mcclain
February 8, 2010
Daniel Forhan's ideas were on a roll when he developed his pitch to power campus buses with waste vegetable oil. The idea to convert oil from dorm cafeterias and restaurants around Ann Arbor into usable biodiesel fuel led to Forhan's win in the Green Campus category.
LM: How did you come up with this idea?
DF: My high school physics teacher and Michigan alumnus, Josh Barclay, converts oil for his own car. He got me interested in this idea in high school, and then I came up here and noticed that The Ride and the BTB Party Bus did this too. While researching for an engineering class, I found a student report from four or five years ago exploring something like this. So, I redid all of their calculations to see how feasible this would be, and it formed itself into a pitch. There's a lot more than a pitch to it, but it's a good way to get this off the ground.
LM: How has your experience at the University of Michigan made this pitch possible?
DF: Because I study mechanical engineering here, I had been doing a lot of things that relate to this pitch through math. My engineering Professor, [Jason] Daida, got us all to think about going out in the community and making things happen rather than just focusing on the math and science aspects.
LM: How do you think your pitch can help the future of the state of Michigan?
DF: This saves the University money in both the long run and the short run, but, more importantly, it contributes to a green campus. In Ann Arbor, there aren't as many cars as there are places with waste vegetable oil, making it a great place to get this off the ground. I've started putting together a business plan, and if it doesn't save the campus money, and if it isn't good for the green aspect, then I don't want to do it. If it can't do both of those things, it's no good.
LM: What inspires you?
DF: When I look up at the ride and see "Powered With Biodiesel Fuel," and then see our buses that don't run on this fuel, it kind of surprises me that we aren't contributing more to a green community.
LM: How did you come up with this idea?
DF: My high school physics teacher and Michigan alumnus, Josh Barclay, converts oil for his own car. He got me interested in this idea in high school, and then I came up here and noticed that The Ride and the BTB Party Bus did this too. While researching for an engineering class, I found a student report from four or five years ago exploring something like this. So, I redid all of their calculations to see how feasible this would be, and it formed itself into a pitch. There's a lot more than a pitch to it, but it's a good way to get this off the ground.
LM: How has your experience at the University of Michigan made this pitch possible?
DF: Because I study mechanical engineering here, I had been doing a lot of things that relate to this pitch through math. My engineering Professor, [Jason] Daida, got us all to think about going out in the community and making things happen rather than just focusing on the math and science aspects.
LM: How do you think your pitch can help the future of the state of Michigan?
DF: This saves the University money in both the long run and the short run, but, more importantly, it contributes to a green campus. In Ann Arbor, there aren't as many cars as there are places with waste vegetable oil, making it a great place to get this off the ground. I've started putting together a business plan, and if it doesn't save the campus money, and if it isn't good for the green aspect, then I don't want to do it. If it can't do both of those things, it's no good.
LM: What inspires you?
DF: When I look up at the ride and see "Powered With Biodiesel Fuel," and then see our buses that don't run on this fuel, it kind of surprises me that we aren't contributing more to a green community.