For the past three years, nearly 30 Penn State students have been re-engineering a vehicle for a nationwide competition.

The competition, called Challenge X, allows undergraduate and graduate students to work together to make a Chevy Equinox's system more environmentally friendly. Judges expect the vehicle to not only be safe but also feel and look like a regular Chevy Equinox, said Mel Fox, overall team leader of the project.

This year, the team installed a parallel hybrid configuration in the vehicle, which allows the vehicle to run on both a 300-volt lithium battery pack and on a mix of 20 percent biodiesel and 80 percent diesel fuel at the same time, Fox said.

The biodiesel mix that the vehicle will run on is more environmentally friendly because it is considered a net carbon dioxide producer. Because the biodiesel is made from soybean oil and the soybean plant absorbs carbon dioxide, the amount of carbon dioxide emitted from the fuel is equal to the amount absorbed in the field. Additionally, there is no sulfur in biodiesel, Fox said.

Fox said the vehicle will also run on some hydrogen fuel, which will decrease its carbon emissions because the only byproducts of hydrogen are heat and water.

Last year, the competition focused on integrating various components into the vehicle and the team placed fifth out of the 17 teams. In 2005, the competition focused on simulation and modeling.

Fox said she believes her team could place even higher this year because it will have an entire month to refine the vehicle and test it, unlike last year where the team was working against the judging date.

"It's hard to say how we're measuring up this year because we don't know how the other schools are doing," she said. "I think we have a really good shot at being in the top three this year."

Some undergraduates work on the vehicle for a class, and students who have graduated have ended up working for companies such as DaimlerChrysler and General Motors, said Brandon Tarbert, outreach coordinator for the competition.

Tarbet said the opportunity to work with Challenge X has helped him combine a number of his passions.

"It's an opportunity for me to explore my science affinity and get a chance to talk about it," Tarbert said. "I really like science, and I really like green technology, and it's a place where it all comes together."

Matt Shirk, a team leader who has been involved with the competition since it began in 2004, said the competition has given him not only hands-on experience but also management experience.

"Some of it's just a lot of fun, but sometimes it ends up being a lot of work, too," he said.

The competition, funded by GM and the U.S. Department of Energy, hopes it will gain insight into new automotive technologies as well as educate the next generation of students.