Sustainable Biodiesel Summit
I had the good fortune of attending the Sustainable Biodiesel Summit in San Diego on Feb 3-5. This is sort of a shadow of or pre-cursor to the National Biodiesel Board's annual conference, which I also attended. The SBS had about 100 core attendees, ranging from crunchy backyard Biodiesel brewers to B100 co-op members to formidable BD experts from the NREL and the USDA.
North Carolina's Piedmont Biofuels was there in full force, represented by Leif, Rachel and Lyle Estill, who has just finished his book, Biodiesel Power, a warm and humorous account of Piedmont's growth beyond the blender. The book covers the technicalities of BD production and fuel quality in some detail, as well as touching on the economics and politics of the BD industry.
The heart of the SBS was its focus on localized Biodiesel operations and sustainable production from "cradle to grave," including the nature (or lack thereof) of BD feed stocks. There was a consensus that sustainable Biodiesel is incongruent with GMO soy, canola and other feed stocks. The B100 movement also seems to have a preference for using non-virgin oils, mainly recycled fryer grease.
Surrounding the SBS was a palpable mistrust of corporate America, especially when it comes to Biodiesel. Concerns not only included giant industrial players who have been showing interest in the space, such as Shell, BP and ADM, but also the big soy grower associations and more commercial BD entities that populate and govern the National Biodiesel Board. This tension between the sustainable Biodiesel community and the NBB mainstream became a dominant theme by the end of the weekend, despite the pleas of several peace-keepers, including former NREL scientist Shaine Tyson and USDA biochemist and oil seed expert Mike Haas. This tension was considerably diffused during Saturday night's dinner, where NBB CEO Joe Jobe appeared at the behest of BD advocate Daryl Hannah.
The sessions at the SBS were quite good. Eric Bowen, President of the San Francisco Biofuels Co-op, who is also an attorney, talked about various tax incentives available to BD producers. California state senator Christine Kehoe gave a general Biodiesel ra-ra and BioSolar's Randall von Wedel and others discussed various quality and testing issues.
But the real meat of the SBS was in the discussion that surrounded and ensued these sessions. There are some very passionate people in the grassroots Biodiesel movement. The traveling organic circus known as Kopali, checked in from their B100-fueled tour from Costa Rica to entertain and educate on Saturday night. The LA BD coop brought down a trailer full of B100 to fill everyone's tank, including Willie Nelson's bus.
Summary of the NBB conference still to come. Here are some sustainable Biodiesel/B100 links:
North Carolina's Piedmont Biofuels was there in full force, represented by Leif, Rachel and Lyle Estill, who has just finished his book, Biodiesel Power, a warm and humorous account of Piedmont's growth beyond the blender. The book covers the technicalities of BD production and fuel quality in some detail, as well as touching on the economics and politics of the BD industry.
The heart of the SBS was its focus on localized Biodiesel operations and sustainable production from "cradle to grave," including the nature (or lack thereof) of BD feed stocks. There was a consensus that sustainable Biodiesel is incongruent with GMO soy, canola and other feed stocks. The B100 movement also seems to have a preference for using non-virgin oils, mainly recycled fryer grease.
Surrounding the SBS was a palpable mistrust of corporate America, especially when it comes to Biodiesel. Concerns not only included giant industrial players who have been showing interest in the space, such as Shell, BP and ADM, but also the big soy grower associations and more commercial BD entities that populate and govern the National Biodiesel Board. This tension between the sustainable Biodiesel community and the NBB mainstream became a dominant theme by the end of the weekend, despite the pleas of several peace-keepers, including former NREL scientist Shaine Tyson and USDA biochemist and oil seed expert Mike Haas. This tension was considerably diffused during Saturday night's dinner, where NBB CEO Joe Jobe appeared at the behest of BD advocate Daryl Hannah.
The sessions at the SBS were quite good. Eric Bowen, President of the San Francisco Biofuels Co-op, who is also an attorney, talked about various tax incentives available to BD producers. California state senator Christine Kehoe gave a general Biodiesel ra-ra and BioSolar's Randall von Wedel and others discussed various quality and testing issues.
But the real meat of the SBS was in the discussion that surrounded and ensued these sessions. There are some very passionate people in the grassroots Biodiesel movement. The traveling organic circus known as Kopali, checked in from their B100-fueled tour from Costa Rica to entertain and educate on Saturday night. The LA BD coop brought down a trailer full of B100 to fill everyone's tank, including Willie Nelson's bus.
Summary of the NBB conference still to come. Here are some sustainable Biodiesel/B100 links:
- Eric Bowen's All Things Biodiesel
- Learn to make Biodiesel
- More on home brewing: Back Yard Biodiesel
posted by Dave Rosenheim @ 10:09 AM
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