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Tales from the Plant
| May 2010
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Greetings!
Welcome to our May membership newsletter! This is our third attempt to improve our communication with you. Our usual writer, Rachel is off having a baby or two, so this month's Newsletter is up to me. I'm Lyle, who you might know as the V.P. of Stuff, or as the Junior Varsity of Newsletter production.
Our Design-Build department shipped one of their legendary cavitational reactor units to Central Carolina Community College, finished an enzymatic pilot plant for the Biofuels Center of North Carolina, and is well on their way to completing another cavitator for a biodiesel plant in Pennsylvania.
We are not going to trouble you with the roller coaster ride that has been commercial biodiesel production in America, but suffice it to say that we are still knocking ourselves out on our quest to make sustainable biodiesel. While many biodiesel plants in America are shuttered, or being sold for scrap, we are proud to still be making fuel. What's more, by going after our waste streams with a vengeance, we have started making a little money making biodiesel.
Our Research and Analytics business has also been flourishing, and we welcome the sage wisdom and guidance of Dr. Shaine Tyson--the mother of America's biodiesel industry. We now have two PhD's kicking about the place.
As always, we have a deep and abiding gratitude to our members, our suppliers, our customers, and our stakeholders for staying with us through dark and challenging times, and we are looking forward to the promising days ahead.
Sustainably yours,
Piedmont Biofuels
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B100 Coming to Saxapahaw
Chris Jude talks to a passerby at the Haw River Festival in Saxaphaw  | Thanks to the good folks over at Triangle Clean Cities, we will be adding another location to our B100 Community Trail.
Today Piedmont operates five B100 locations in the Triangle, and this summer we will build our sixth in Saxapahaw, thanks to a grant from the Carolina Blue Skies Initiative that was funded by the Department of Energy.
What's particularly cool about this one is that it will emerge in the middle of a gas station. Our long time friend and member Jeff Barney left Chatham Marketplace for the wilds of Saxapahaw, and opened the positively unique Saxapahaw General Store, which is a five star gas station. He ripped out the frozen pizza toaster ovens and started serving up locally raised goat burgers with his signature Duck Fat Fries.
Most of us are big fans of Michael Pollan, but we have to admit that when Pollan decries, "Don't buy your food where you buy your gas," he has yet to eat at Jeff's place. Jeff is an unlikely gas station owner, who quickly grew tired of serving up local food and pumping far away fuel, so we are pleased to remedy that problem by making B100 available there this summer.
North Carolina currently enjoys more than its fair share of B100 availability  | |
Piedmont wins 2010 MobileCare Fuel/Technology Award
On May 26th at the Mobilizing NC conference in Raleigh, NC, Piedmont Biofuels was recognized for our outstanding achievements in expanding North Carolina's use and awareness of alternative fuel. The 2010 MobileCare Fuel/Technology award was presented by NC Dept of Transportation Secretary Gene Conti. Piedmont was selected for this award for several reasons; namely, that Piedmont is the one of the state's first biodiesel producer and distributor. In addition, Piedmont is the only BQ-9000 accredited producer in North Carolina and the first certified small producer in the U.S. The selection committee was also impressed by Piedmont's biodiesel related education and outreach activities especially to low-income and minority farmers. The MobileCare team thanked Piedmont for being a pioneer in the area of transportation-related clean air and renewable energy initiatives. |
Piedmont delivers Cavitator to Central Carolina Community College - New Biofuels Lab
The design build department is excited to announce the delivery of our new 5gpm Cavitator skid to Central Carolina Community College's Biofuels Lab. This breakthrough technology is beneficial in that it causes an almost instantaneous reaction. The speed and efficiency of the transesterification reaction directly correlate to finished fuel quality by limiting competing side reactions and pushing the transesterification reaction towards the methyl ester side of the equilibrium equation. CCCC has been a leader in Biofuels education in North Carolina for over 7 years. Their new training lab will be a state of the art facility intended to prepare students for the biofuels industry. We are delighted to work with CCCC and look forward to the grand opening of their new facility this fall!
Rick and Joe with the CCCC Cavitator skid  |
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The Deadly Petroleum Grid
Our members run around on B100 for a number of reasons. Some come in the name of air quality. Maybe their kid has asthma, or something. Some come in the name of peace, since there is no war required to make biodiesel. Some come simply to free themselves of the petroleum grid. When you are driving down the road on 100% biodiesel you are not tithing to Haliburton. You are free of the Deep Water Horizon disaster that is filling the Gulf of Mexico with poison right now. And you are free of faceless corporations. Got a problem? Give us a call. You can talk to the person who made your fuel.
We'd like to dedicate this issue of our newsletter to the Brown Pelican. It's ubiquitous on the coast of North Carolina, and when we hit the beach we marvel at its majesty. It nests on the coast of Louisiana, and its eggs are taking on crude oil right now.
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Grease Appreciation
Dinner!
Wednesday, June 23rd
at 6:30pm
Occasionally we like to highlight some of the great folks who recycle their used fryer oil with Piedmont Biofuels. In June we're honoring Tyler's Taproom in Apex by holding our GREASE APPRECIATION DINNER at their location.  Let us know if you're coming to dinner
RSVP Here! (And get there early if you want a seat--we ran out of seating at our last one) |
Keepin' it Greasy with the Grease Goddess...
Moya, our Grease Goddess, and her team of oil collectors procure
used cooking from restaurants, country clubs, universities and schools around the Triad and Triangle.
She is working
hard to expand Piedmont's Oil
Collection business and would love to take any and all of your
waste vegetable oil. Already on board? Spread the word.
Moya can be reached at greasegoddess[at]biofuels.coop |
Partners in Sustainability
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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
our partners in this newsletter and we stage Grease Appreciate Dinners at partner locations. 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.
Here's the thing. Not
everyone runs around on locally made biodiesel. But everyone eats. We
have plenty of members who support what we are doing but have not yet
made it to our fuel. They are supporters of a cause. If you are a
restaurant or a food service organization you will find that by
becoming a Piedmont Partner in Sustainability you will gain new
customers who value your commitment to sustaining human life on this
garden planet.
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| Contact Information |
Membership Services
Rachel Burton and Lyle Estill
919-321-8260
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