...::: What's New in April

April Newsletter

Smooth sailing...

For the first time in our life, Piedmont has entered into some smooth sailing. The membership is growing, we are collecting more grease than ever before, our fuel is less expensive than its petroleum equivalent, and life is good. We wish we could spend more time testing the winds in the Caribbean, but for now we are anchored in Pittsboro, producing a clean burning renewable fuel that we all want to run around on...

THERE IS SUCH THING AS A FREE LUNCH!

That's right folks.......we are starting a new program to say "Thank you" to our Partners in Sustainability and our devoted members. Everybody wins.

Here is how everyone else does it: They pay pennies on the gallon for a restaurant's used cooking oil.

Here is how we do it: We add value to our restaurants by advertising, marketing, and sending our membership to their tables. We have eaters--that is--customers, and those customers are you.

HERE IS THE TWIST: We are sending YOU to do the thanking and the eating. Each of our members can expect a gift certificate in the mail over the next three months that will let you dine at one of our Partners in Sustainability restaurants.

Don't forget to thank the restaurant for all they do for their community! And let them know that you came to eat running on fuel made from their grease.

WE'LL KEEP YOU POSTED..........

Raleigh Tank - Larry's Beans

TRAIL UPDATE:

Burlington: Still on B80, but her next fill will be with B100

Carrboro Public Works: Running B100 with a brand new bulletin board to keep you all in the know

Edible Earthscapes - As always, running the pure stuff all year long

Larry's Beans - This tank has a little bit of B80 left in it, but it's next fill will be within the next week, bringing the blend to B100

Pittsboro - As of last week, we are on B100

Saxapahaw - The newest addition has about 350 gallons of B80 left

A COUPLE OF THINGS TO NOTE:

If you are receiving an error code on your card at the pump, it may be time to ask for another. There have been a couple of instances this past week with older cards running out of juice. Call the office and we'll get one to you right away.

We are gearing up for the busy season and are committed to keep the trail packed with locally sourced and made fuel. Carrboro and Pittsboro are needing fills almost every week and a half thanks to our member support.

Burlington Biodiesel Cooperative

We've partnered with Burlington Biodiesel Cooperative since the "get go." We hooked their founder, Eric Henry up with his first methanol, and we've been delivering value ever since.

Eric works at T.S. Designs, and both Eric and his company has been an inspiration to us over the years.

When they ended up with more feedstocks from their community than they could spin into fuel, we came over and vacuumed some grease out of their yard. One of the many things that T.S. Designs is involved in is their Cotton of the Carolina's project which results in locally grown t-shirts.

EVERYBODY WANTS ENZYMATIC......

Our Research and Analytics group has been hard at work talking up our enzymatic biodiesel technology. We recently performed a workshop about enzymatic biodiesel with 19 participants in March, a presentation at the "Innovations in Biodiesel" forum of the National Biodiesel Board conference in February, and another presentation in a conference in Florida. We've also had a big increase in the number of people who want to come and figure out how to put our technology in their biodiesel plant.

And we don't even have anything to sell yet.

But we're working hard on that too. The engineers at Knack PD are modeling our process and developing drawings for our first full scale esterification unit, to be installed this summer in Pittsboro. We continue to push enzyme reuse on the lab scale with a variety of feedstocks, and we just started a multi-month trial converting palm fatty acid distillate to biodiesel using our FAeSTER enzymatic esterification process. By the end of the year, we hope to be selling enzymatic esterification units like hot cakes.

The pilot unit we built over a year ago is also getting in on the action. It's had a facelift with some added equipment, and we're running batches daily to push enzymatic transesterification closer to commercial reality. These recent successes with transesterification make me even more confident that we can achieve a complete enzymatic overhaul of the biodiesel process from the starting fat to the finished fuel.

As excited as we are, it's all just talk until 10,000 gallons of oil goes in, 10,000 gallons of biodiesel comes out, and potassium hydroxide and sulfuric acid are nowhere to be found. That's the scale that matters, that's the scale that's going to change the industry, and that's our next step.

So wish us luck.

Featured Restaurant

Vimala's Curry Blossom Café

Before opening her café in The Courtyard on Franklin Street, Vimala hosted weekly community dinners at her home for more than a decade asking only for donations. Now with her café, she is an active leader of local food justice running on the motto "Vimala cooks, everybody eats."

Vimala preparing some fish caught from the NC Coastline for her daily dinner special

It's a community driven program that allows everyone to eat regardless of ability to pay supported by those that love Vimala as well as new customers and loyal fans. Vimala is also a big supporter of local food - she buys most of her produce and meat locally (straying only by necess

ity) and her fish from the NC coastline. Some of her providers includes our very own Piedmont Biofarms as well as Minca Farms and the student and community run HOPE Gardens. Her recipe ingredients vary by what's in season and her specials change daily - go by Vimala's Curryblossom Café and give yourself a treat while supporting her cause and ours!

Sandwhich

Sandwhich is another Chapel Hill restaurant with lots of local roots. Owners Hich and Janet Elberti had a couple of goals in mind: making delicious healthy meals out of sustainably grown and local products. One might think this would be a hard task until you try the daily soup or anything on Sandwhich's menu.

If produce and meat are not produced locally, it is guaranteed that they have been produced sustainably.

Sandwhich has been around Chapel Hill for about 5 years but recently opened in a new location right on Franklin Street.

Sandwhich at its newer, bigger, and outside eating friendlier location on W. Franklin St.

Sandwhich owners and management are excited about the change. The new locations is bigger and has a nice patio space that will soon feature bands on weekend nights. Also on the menu are draft and bottled beers, fine wines and some delicious house-made beverages like the Moroccan Mint Tea. Need a Sandwhich suggestion? Try the Braised Lamb Tagine, or the Goat Cheese and Eggplant sandwich.

Spring is Biodiesel Education Season

With the appearance of new leaves brings multiple appearances from our Cleantech Education Trailer. We'll be spreading the word about sustainable fuels and oil seed pressing at a number of schools and events this spring. Come out and say hello at these places: