Piedmont's Partners in Sustainability program is our way of thanking the restaurants and kitchens that support us. We want to highlight the collaborative efforts we all make demonstrating a more sustainable future for North Carolina.

We are currently growing our Partners in Sustainability program so that it may better serve and distinguish our fellow partners. This program provides each partner with a listing on our website. We also feature one restaurant a month in our newsletter and host a Grease Appreciate Dinner at their location.  Our partners are an integral part of our sustainability team when we travel to our educational  and civic engagements, as they are featured in our promotional materials.

So help us inform your customers!

We are asking that each of our partners to please send a hi-resolution version of their company logo, a brief description of their business, as well as their contact info (phone #, email address and web url) and physical address. Please pass this info along to greasegoddess[at]biofuels.coop.

So, keep an eye on our Partners in Sustainability page on our biofuels.coop site. The next iteration will offer locational information for each partner, as well as their logo, contact info and a brief self-description in a stand-alone profile.

We look forward to growing with you all far into the future.

Many thanks for all your support in creating a community that produces its own clean-burning, local biodiesel!

Every month we like to highlight some of the great folks who recycle their used fryer oil with Piedmont Biofuels. This month we're honoring MEZ of Durham by holding our monthly GREASE APPRECIATION DINNER at their location.

MEZ is the newest venture from the Chapel Hill Restaurant Group, the owners of the award-winning restaurants 518 West, 411 West, Squid's, and Spanky's.

Not only is Mez a great provider of top-notch waste fryer oil, they are North Carolina's first LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) designed restaurant.

Join the us for dinner   next Wednesday! Catch up with your biodiesel friends and check out what Chefs Aaron Stumb and Jeff Robinson have on offer!

Let us know if you're coming to dinner
RSVP Here!

In the first quarter of 2010 Piedmont completed two significant projects for the Biofuels Center of North Carolina, both of which are publicly available and both of which will help move North Carolina's biodiesel industry forward.

The first project, produced by Design-Build manager Nick Fox, was an overview of how existing biodiesel plants could add esterification to their processes. Esterification of lower grade fats, oils, and greases enables biodiesel producers to acquire less expensive feedstock, while still creating high quality biodiesel.

Piedmont has done extensive work on esterification at its Pittsboro facility and is planning a significant plant expansion in this area in the fall.  In keeping with its "open source" philosophy, Piedmont is making its research available to the rest of the industry.

The second project, produced by Research and Analytics coordinator Greg Austic, was a feasibility study on the available resource to support a trap grease to biofuels plant in Wake County. Working with the City of Raleigh, with trap grease collection companies, and with Eco-Collections out of Wilmington, a company currently in the used cooking oil collection business, the study assesses the possibility of bringing a trap-grease plant online.

Currently, Biodiesel no longer receives a dollar per gallon tax credit. However, with your help, we can get this tax credit reinstated so that the biodiesel industry can continue to flourish and prosper.

The biodiesel tax credit pays for itself by creating more tax revenue than is spent. In 2009, the 450 million gallons of fuel produced by the US biodiesel industry supported 23,000 jobs in all sectors of the economy, added $4.1 billion to the US GDP, and generated $828 million in tax revenue for federal, state and local governments. That means the government spent $450mm on the credit and got back $828mm in revenue. Plus a lot of jobs. 

Since the credit was passed the industry has grown from 25 million gallons in 2004 to 700 million gallons in 2008, displacing millions of barrels of petroleum and helping to make the US more energy independent.

Help us create more competitive pricing for biodiesel at the pump! Call your elected officials today.