More than 100 elevators on the campus of Penn State University require hyrdraulic fluid, traditionally petroleum-based and probematic when there's a sprung leak.
Not long ago, the university turned to Penn State researcher Joe Perez, a renowned expert on bio-based fuels and lubricants, to help develop an alternative for the 17,000 gallons of hydraulic fluid the school uses and to help eliminate expensive and dangerous cleanups.
Now Penn State is encouraging other schools to convert to soy-based and showing them how.