Bio Products Opportunity

It’s funny how the Google Calendar tends to follow the changing of seasons.  Here in the piedmont of North Carolina the leaves are just beginning to turn.  And the speaking gigs are piling up.

It must be the start of school.  Tonight about ten of us gathered for a potluck at White, and I was reflecting on how I started my day in steel toed boots, loading scrap metal with Holden, and finished my day at an auditorium at Durham Tech talking to a full audience about sustainability and biofuels and stuff.

Rachel cut to the quick.  “School is on, and they need a speaker, so there you go.”

Roger on that.

I left my sweaty/greasy/stained activities with Holden in mid afternoon, flew home and scrubbed and scrubbed, threw on my speaker’s uniform and headed out.  I thought I would be sitting on a table in front of a class full of science students, like I might at Central Carolina Community College.

But I was blown away.  Durham Tech was way more like a university lecture hall.

I’ve done lecture halls before.  I was just surprised.  Last spring I was invited to speak at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania.  Friday night was on “Sustainable Biodiesel.”  Saturday was on “Local Food.”  Matt Steiman and Jen who run the fuel/food show in those parts set up the whole thing.

I had been working on improving my speaking/reading skills for years, and on the Friday night I decided to discard my pre-written script.  After all, it was sustainable biodiesel I was supposed to talk about.  I could have closed my eyes and hit the “Play” button and laid down a wonderful talk.

I was nervous.  But it worked.  Frankie Abralind was in the audience. He is the publisher of biodieselSMARTER, sort of the Rupert Murdoch of our space, and he is a student of speaking, and improvisational theatre, and a master of sustainable biodiesel.  Frankie is a tough critic.  He’s seen me speak many times, and when he pulled me aside and said, “Best ever,” I was jazzed.

So the next night I did the same thing.  I drove to Lancaster to visit my aunt and uncle, and my uncle Bruce, who is the accomplished writer and academic in our family, said “If you can do it without a script, you will be much better.”

I paced around his backyard in the warmth of the spring sunshine and I read and memorized and contemplated what it would be like to face a big local food crowd with no notes.

And that night I did it.  And it worked.

And I have been giving talks without so much as an index card ever since.

One of the things we are doing at Piedmont Biofuels is changing the message.  We are migrating from “all biodiesel all the time” to “sustainability and our eco-industrial park.”

When it comes to biodiesel we confess to having been quirky, we enjoyed being sexy, and we didn’t care for being evil.

Nowadays we are on the quest for used cooking oil.  That has never been our message.  But it is now.  Nowadays Russell and Moya are lining up oil collection accounts, with help from all of us, and I am headed into the Speaking Season with a new message.

At potluck tonight I said I felt like Paul Revere.  It’s time now for me to get back on my horse and ride through the Triangle, shouting a new message.  After five years of shooting my mouth off, people are accustomed to listening.

And after all, it appears Speaking Season is upon us…

Original post by Lyle

Today I drove to Southern Pines for a meeting of the Moore County Community Action Network.  What an inspiration.

Moore CAN is a loosely knit group of people who are united in a desire for change.  They have been meeting periodically, at various spaces around town, and a vision for action is beginning to emerge.

They want to do something.  They want a different world.  And they are on track to make it happen.

Today was a gorgeous Carolina blue sky fall day on which Creampuff happened to be operating fine.  I drove down for lunch with the top down, with some of the founders, did some book stuff and a talk, had some ice cream at the end, and headed home with the undisputed notion that “bottom up” change is in stock.

These folks are beyond curious.  They want movement.

I have to confess that meetings like this can be hard for me.  I don’t have answers.  I have stories about what our project has done.  But our stories are not always easily replicated.

For those who routinely ask how they can be a Piedmont Biofuels, I have an answer.  “Find a beautiful magnetic female diesel mechanic, and a big brained sustainability addict, and a rich guy who wants to change the world, and away you go.”  Add to that a couple of dozen passionate, fanatically committed people, and presto, you too can be Piedmont Biofuels.

For those who ask what they can do to change the world without that, the answer is tougher.

When it comes to sustainability, one size does not fit all.

I would suggest that if you live in Moore County, you should join Moore CAN.  They are organized. And thinking.  And meeting.  And good things will come from their work.  One of their folks is working on a farm to fork delivery project-sort of a CSA on wheels.  Another was asking for support for Obama’s “public option” on health care.

They are non-partisan.  And they are rolling.  They understand local economy, they get peak oil, and climate change, and their train is ready to leave the station.

They sort of reminded me of the Bruce Peninsula Environmental Group (BPEG) to which my brother Glen belongs.  Moore CAN meets at the Civic Center.  BPEG meets at a church.  Neither one has a “place.”

Yet “place” has been important in our endeavors.  We once had hundreds of visitors to Summer Shop-to see our biodiesel reactor designs.  And then we had thousands of visitors to our Coop location-which on our project is often referred to as “white,” since it was an abandoned white doublewide.

It’s interesting to note that when we moved out of “white,” many people equated that to “closing down.”  As if the Coop was a place.

Piedmont Biofuels is so “place based” in our thinking that our advice does not always transfer very well.  When you are an organization like Moore CAN, and you meet all over the place, you don’t exactly follow our example by giving tours.

Advice is not my strong suit.

I just like to tell stories about what worked for us.

Today Moore CAN listened.  They are seeking change.  If I were a betting man, I would suggest they are going to make it happen.  I was impressed.

Had they been selling memberships, I would have joined on the spot.  Stand by for positive change in Moore County.  Moore CAN left me jazzed…

Original post by Lyle

Today I had a scheduling malfunction. Holden needed some help on his “White remediation” efforts. And I had to head to Raleigh for a meeting at the Pink Palace.

Before I am accused of being cryptic with colors, I should say that we have long used the colors of buildings as a lazy naming convention. Interns, for instance typically live at “White.” Which is a modified doublewide on a bend of the Moncure road that is actually white.

Jason and Haruka bought “Pink.” It was the residence out back that was actually pink.

And everyone has been working hard on getting “Yellow” ready for sale. It’s Piedmont’s former intern housing that is colored yellow.

In downtown Raleigh there is a giant building made of pink marble that is the home to the Department of Commerce, and the Department of Public Instruction, and the Department of Revenue. Bureaucrats refer to it as “the Pink Palace.”

All of which is merely a long introduction.

We used to make biodiesel at “White.” Holden is one of our interns this semester, and during his “exercises in hauling” semester he has been evacuating loads of stuff out of the place.

Last night he called me up because he was stuck. It is easy to get stuck when it comes to White remediation. There is a vast amount of work to do. From scrap metal to trash runs to drums of unidentifiable goo, on the surface it looks daunting. And last night I agreed to throw in a morning’s work with Holden.

Not a problem. Together we cut pipes and vacuumed up spills and loaded the Dodge with hundreds of pounds of greasy filthy stuff that was begging for the landfill.

My scheduling problem was that I had to be at the Pink Palace at 1:00 to discuss a Division of Air Quality grant that is targeted at getting more biodiesel into North Carolina school buses.

Remediating White is a wardrobe killing, grease ensconced, “dirt under the fingernails” experience. Sitting down with the Department of Public Instruction in a corner office of the seventh floor of the Pink Palace is more of a dry cleaned, deodorant on, nails cut opportunity.

Booking both on the same day is silly.

My brother Jim is a time management guru. I thought of him today as I spent a valuable hour in the middle of the day scrubbing black grease off my hands to get ready for my trip to Raleigh. Remediating White and schmoozing at the Pink Palace are incompatible activities.

I wish I could say that tomorrow will be better. But tomorrow I am giving a presentation on our local currency, the PLENTY to Self Help Credit Union in Durham. On the way I have been asked by Rachel to pick up a 55 gallon drum of isopropyl alcohol. That’s not a problem, since I am happy to reduce shipping costs.

But tomorrow night I have a meeting of the board of the Abundance Foundation in Durham. They are a forgiving bunch, and will not care if I have a drum of chemicals strapped in my truck bed.

Yet some of them have suggested we hit the town afterwards. In some ways I feel like it is yet another scheduling malfunction. My inclination is to bring my “drum” home, rather than celebrate with the board….

Original post by Lyle

School is back in session.  The new interns have arrived.  We even back to opening windows at night.  Feels good.

Here is the last of my summer movies.  Over on my You Tube Channel it got a lot of views.  But judging from the comments it has mostly made the rounds with the “haircut fetish” crowd.  All of the comments appear to be focused on the styling job, rather than what I have to say.  Perhaps readers of Energy Blog will listen to the words…

httpvh:http://www.youtube.com/user/lyleestill#play/favorites/0/immi44ZhpWo

Original post by Lyle

I’m a little bit blown away.  My daughter Jessalyn just published an issue of g-think for her New York advertising firm.

Here on Energy Blog she has occasionally sparred with the childless Tarus, founder of OpenNMS.  For years I have referred to my four “unsustainable children,” and while that always gets a laugh, Jess has persistently  argued on behalf of progeny.

I have to say I am stunned.  This issue of g-think is on “energy,” and I am amazed.  When she asked me for a contribution I sent one in.  When she asked for a brief description of my article, I said, “It’s about stabbing a heated spike into the gelatinous cyclopic eye of the status quo.”

She replied with a request for something that would not get her fired.  And behold.  My article appears beneath a closeup of an eyeball.

She contributed her own review of Thomas Friedman’s Hot, Flat, and Crowded, which is a tough book to review.  On my website I only review books that I can gush over, and I sort of favored Harm De Blij’s The Power of Place, that offers a counter balance to Friedman’s work.

All told, I’m thinking Jess finds this edition of g-think to be a little “Estill heavy,” which I generally think of as a good thing.

When I see this g-think issue it makes me proud.  And impressed.  I have sat in the audience watching Jess duke it out with Tarus.  He is right that a childless guy can go through as much carbon as he likes, and still not match the footprint of a father like me.  And Jess is right that brilliant children are what will find a path to sustaining human life on this planet.

I need to ping Tarus.  If I were a boxing judge, I believe Jess just landed a point…

Original post by Lyle

I’ve spent the summer running about with the family and a FLIP camera.  Trying my hand at video blogging.  Here is my summer’s work:

Original post by Lyle

I’ve just finished Godo Stoyke’s The Carbon Charter; blueprint for a carbon free future (New Society Publishers, 2009) and I must say it should be required reading for every policy maker and lobbyist in the land.

It’s a little book.  Kind of a “light read.”  Filled with photographs and charts and sidebars that make our journey into a low carbon future easy to follow.

It’s a survey book that’s starts with the simple premise of how we must immediately start to reduce our emissions, and then travels around the world explaining different successful approaches in different locales.

Stoyke appears to be an Albertan architect who is at ease with LEED buildings as he is with zero waste communities as he is with plugin hybrids.  It’s sort of a Natural Capitalism Lite–a pocketbook that goes a long way in increasing our carbon literacy.

I found it to be an inspiration.  At Piedmont Biofuels we have accidentally stumbled into what Stoyke would call “eco-industrial design.”  Our quest for sustainable biodiesel began like everyone else’s–that is we generated a whole bunch of co-products that we threw away.

Once upon a time we would buy a pound of fat, turn eighty percent of it into biodiesel, and pitch the rest.  Now that our bio-refinery is working, we account for every ounce.  We used to ship some biodiesel out with our wash water.  Now we recover it and sell it. We used to ship free fatty acids to compost.  Now they power our boilers and have allowed us to turn off our electric heaters.  Glycerin that was once too contaminated to find a buyer now ships to market.

We are not getting paid for our carbon savings on biodiesel yet.  But that will come.

The Carbon Charter outlines “bio-bounties,” and “bio-feebate” policy mechanisms that can reward carbon reduction in a revenue neutral way.  From carbon labeling schemes to general wealth indices which include things like happiness, Stoyke’s book paints a hopeful picture.

Those of us immersed in renewable energy often labor long and hard in the darkness–often awash in red ink–but we do so with the knowledge that change is going to come.  The Carbon Charter does a wonderful job of enumerating the many ways in which change is already coming to pass…

Original post by Lyle

Today our worm castings made their debut at Chatham Marketplace.

It’s taken us awhile.  For years Piedmont Biofarm has been working on bringing in food waste from Chatham Marketplace, running it through the worms in our vermiculture digester, and returning valuable castings to the Marketplace’s shelves.

We thought it would have a nice “round trip” feel to it, and at long last it does.

Amanda and I wrote a grant to install a worm composting system.  It was funded by the North Carolina Department of Environment, Pollution Prevention Division.  At the heart of their mission is the diversion of waste from landfills, and this project does exactly that.

Amanda collects food waste, runs it through a modified “backyard chipper” that Brian Rosa gave us, which turns food into a “worm smoothie.”  It’s basically a “pre-digestion” step that enables the worms to consume more food faster.

Brian is a worm expert who has worked with us for years.  From our backyard pilot, through a couple of die-offs, to now, where we finally have product for sale.

Today the folks at Chatham Marketplace were gracious enough to grant us an “end cap.” That’s retail speak for “premium real estate.”

And we filled it up with products that come from the Plant.  There are books and puzzles, worm castings, and soaps (which are derived from our glycerin co-product).

On the back of our worm castings bag we offer a “Casting FAQ” which reads like this:

What’s a worm casting?  It’s worm poop.

Why would I want to buy worm poop?  It’s a great soil amendment for bedding plants, houseplants, and gardens.

So it’s like fertilizer?  Yup.  And just like fertilizer you can think of it in ratios.  Pick up a bag of fertilizer sometime and you will see an NPK listing.  The N is for nitrogen.  The P is for phosphorus.  The K is for potassium.  Worm castings have an average NPK ratio of 1.6-0.25-1.

Is it organic?  Yup.  Worms concentrate organic matter, so their castings break down much faster than food scraps in a compost pile.  Organic matter also has a C:N ratio.  That’s a measure of how much carbon and nitrogen are present.  There’s always more carbon than nitrogen.  Worm castings tend to average 12.5 :1.

What’s the PH?  Worm castings average around 6.77.

Is it safe?  We don’t suggest eating it.  But it is great to add to your soil.  It has trace minerals in it, and we get every batch tested by the North Carolina Department of Agriculture before we take it to market.  That way we know it is free of pathogens that can harm your bedding plants.

Where do they come from?  Piedmont Biofarm, on the eastern edge of Pittsboro.  We collect food waste (some from Chatham Marketplace), and run it through our vermiculture digestion system.

Why such a small bag?  If you would like to buy in bulk, call Amanda at 919-321-8260.  We don’t make a lot of these-the worms are virtually hand raised, so make sure you call ahead.

Why so expensive?  We are the only permitted vermiculture facility powered by human food waste in North Carolina.  If you would like to save money on your castings, check out Country Farm and Home on Small St. in Pittsboro.  Over there Melinda sells cheaper castings in bulk that come from hog waste.

Can I just get my own worms and make my own for free?  Yup.  Please do.  You can take Worm Workshops at the Abundance Foundation next to Piedmont Biofarm, or you can go to Bountiful Backyards in Durham.

Why would we advertise for the competition?  Because we think the world needs to change.  One way to start to change is by making dirt.  Soil can be a renewable resource if it is treated right.  And worm castings-from anyone-can be an excellent start.

Original post by Lyle

Forget renewable energy for a moment.  For the past few weeks I have been inundated with art.

Years ago I was invited to create a chess set for the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore.  It is an exceedingly cool place, which celebrates the work of “Outsider” artists. The particular show was called “Out of This World.”

At the time I was a full time metal sculptor, running Moncure Chessworks.  We did a life sized chess set comprised of “Angels vs. Aliens.”

It was a hit, and stayed in their permanent collection.  I had a blast at the opening, dining with Barbara Lorie and Margaret Pollard, who drove up from Chatham County.  We had a wild night on Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.

And I basically forgot about it.

Until a month ago.  Through the loud background noise of my biodiesel life came some cryptic messages about “windows in New York.”  There were release forms and people calling looking for information, and a call from Rebecca Hoffberger herself looking for biographical details.

It was wild.  My friend Gary likes to point out that the only people included in the American Visionary Art Museum are crazy.  Clearly he is wrong about that.  And while it might be true that I may have been the only artist in the show that had not actually been abducted by aliens, “Outsider” artists have a proclivity for the divine and have often been touched by the gods.

The greatest collection of “Outsider” art in the area is surely housed at Jim Massey’s Holly Hill Daylily farm in Haywood, NC.  That’s just on the edge of Moncure, and it’s 18th Annual Daylily Festival is currently underway.  Anyone who has never been has yet to experience the full flavor of Chatham County.  Jim was the first art collector to acquire one of my pieces, and I am certain that when he gets the news he will immediately order a re-appraisal of his entire collection.

So my sculptural chess pieces shipped from Baltimore to the display windows of Bergdorf Goodman, which apparently is known for its impressive art displays.  Not being that fashionable, and now spending my life immersed in free fatty acids, I had never heard of them.

Yet I seem to be a minority in that.  Suddenly I am hearing from art collectors.  People I once longed to impress are finally impressed. My daughter Jessalyn’s advertising firm made a field trip to the windows. I had forgotten about the urgent need to break into the New York art scene.

Drat.

I wonder if I am destined to always leave things too soon.  By the time the Internet “bubble” arrived, I had left the technology space to do art.  By the time I “made” the windows of Bergdorf Goodman, I was submerged in sustainability.  Sustainability is welcome to hit any time.  I’m still in it from sun up to sun down.

I wasn’t able to attend the New York opening.  I was in London, looking at an electrical generator which was running on glycerin.  And hanging out with some dear friends (most of which were utterly familiar with the windows of Bergdorf Goodman, and startled by my ignorance).

Oh well.

The last art piece I worked on was a giant mushroom on the dam of the pond.  I find it a good place to reflect on how I am not crazy, how I never seem to catch the wave just right, and how I might not be destined to make the big time.

Which is OK.  I rather like feeding the fish in the pond, and going to work, and playing in the sandbox which is our eco-industrial endeavor…

Original post by Lyle

I just returned from a trip to London, where I had the exquisite opportunity to read Harm de Blij’s The Power of Place.

It is a fascinating book.  In many ways it is a counter point to Thomas Friedman.   I’m a big Friedman fan.  His last book  Hot, Flat and Crowded was a manifesto for what America needs to be doing right now.

And I am with him.

But The Power of Place puts Friedman into a new perspective.

De Blij is a geographer.  And a demographer.  And an academic. One of his points is that the world is only getting “flatter” for a tiny percentage of the population.

De Blij borrows heavily from Buckminster Fuller’s “Spaceship Earth,” and breaks down the planet’s inhabitants into “Locals,” “mobals,” and “globals.” The overwhelming percentage of people die in the same country they were born in.  He calls them “locals.”

I married a “local” girl.  That makes me an authority on the subject.  If I were a character in Meredith Wilson’s The Music Man, I would be the guy with “my foot caught in the door.”

De Blij would score me as a “mobal.”  That is, someone who crosses a national boundary in search of a better life.  A risk taker.  A place changer.  He is kind to “mobals.”  It is a much kinder term than “dirty immigrant.”

My poor daughter does not qualify as a debutant because I am an immigrant to this country.

Got it.

I am currently flirting with New Society on writing a third book.  The potential title is Industrial Evolution, and the notion of “place” is inescapable.

One of the topics I will need to cover is Chatham County’s response to our project.  As a place, Pittsboro has been forced to respond to our undertakings–many of which have never been encountered before.

Chatham County is funny.  The Internet is supposed to have offered us a flattened world.  But in Chatham it has been used to build and defend parochial views. Our online presence is characterized by armchair quarterbacks and lovers of the status quo who like to spit poison on anything new or different.

De Blij would nod in agreement.  “Flattening” doesn’t just happen. Most of the world remains as round as it ever was.  I was intrigued by the book.  I thought it was tight, well written, and certainly worth reading.  It will be in the library on Monday.  New additions to the library include: A Nation of Farmers by Sharon Astyk and Aaron Newton, The Solar Century by Jeremy Legett and Common Wealth by Jefrey Sachs.

Original post by Lyle

Our grease collection business began to grow about a year ago, when Moya showed up from Kentucky.  She took a leap of faith, jumped off the stage which was her life, and we caught her.
She snatched Kate out of the intern bin and the two have formed a formidable binary star system ever since.

As part of Piedmont’s new world order, they have embarked on “Celebrity Grease Runs,” in which they load the vacuum truck with everything they need:  gloves, hoses, stingers, drums, and an extra volunteer person who rides along.

Tami was the first to participate.  She spent a long day sucking grease and allegedly impressed both Moya and Kate with her quick learning and her strong back.  Everyone was afraid she would lose a tiara in a dumpster, or break a nail, but neither happened and Tami’s stock went up as news of their successful day spread across our project.

Contrary to popular perception, you do not need to be a blonde to participate in Celebrity Grease Runs.

This morning as I trudged through the gate, I encountered Beth Turner getting ready to go suck grease.  It was a humid June morning, and she was feeling a little shiny, but her enthusiasm for the adventure ahead was palpable.

What is unclear at this point is who is the celebrity in the “Celebrity Grease Run.”  Surely both Tami and Beth are big names around town-but some argue that it is in fact Moya and Kate who have celebrity status.

We can argue about it.

In the meantime, we have a new focus on our feedstock collection efforts. With a newly polished budget, a new web presence, and a brochure coming soon, we are doing some outreach to anyone interested in gaining more intimacy with the oil collection side of our lives.

Anyone interested in going on a run, or helping out with more grease pickup points, should email greasegoddess@biofuels.coop.

Feedstock collection, it seems, like membership, volunteer projects, and local fuel sales, is growing again.

Original post by Lyle

Like the Muppets Take Manhattan…Rachel and Greg just spent the week in Denmark and here’s their report back:

I started my visit in Denmark with a stop in Aarhus, Denmark. Aarhus is the second largest city in Denmark and is home to AAK a large vegetable oil crush plant and refinery. I had the distinct privilege of touring their facility last week after meeting a contact at the most recent AOCS meeting in Orlando this year, AAK refines all the of the major edible oils- rapeseed, palm, soy, in addition to shea nut. The tour at AAK was quite impressive- being able to see operating vegetable oil hydrogenation, hexane extraction, shea nut milling, deodorization, caustic refining, and interesterification. What was particularly fascinating was the shea nut processing- see at Piedmont we often receive offer for unique feedstocks for biodiesel. Recently we got a call to purchase 55 tons of shea nut butter- this material is quite saturated and solid at room temperature. We can make methyl esters out of it although it is not likely to pass the cold soak filtration test anytime soon. Actually we would prefer to hand it out to coop members who are soap makers and massage therapists.

My friend and Aarhus tour guide, Peter, gave me the grand tour of Aarhus including the old cathedral, river area, and the local art museum. In the center of town, we stopped at a public art display with distinct climate change messaging throughout the show. Biodiesel promotion and usage is publicly known here in Denmark. Although we did not rent a diesel car, 5% biodiesel is available at public pumps with fuel provided by two Danish biodiesel producers, Emmelev and Daka. One of the producer uses animals fats for feedstock and the other uses rapeseed oil.

Over the weekend, I met up with Greg and Morgan who traveled from Moldova to Copenhagen and onto Aarhus where we began our trip to the Danish Mecca of renewable energy- the Nordisk Folkecenter for Renewable Energy. We drove north to the Jutland peninsula over long-spanning bridges and the myriad of wind turbines that provide 100% energy for Jutland.

We arrived early to Folkecenter and got the opportunity to explore the campus with its fifteen active renewable buildings or demo sites. They have a beautiful greenhouse dome, strawbale guest house, solar thermal and PV demos, several wind turbines, both small & large plus the only hydrogen filling station in Denmark. The Folkecenter also has a great small scale oilseed crushing and processing demonstration and like Piedmont they used to provide Elsbett conversion workshops as well. After spending the night at in the strawbale house, Greg, Morgan and I had the pleasure of meeting the founder of the Folkecenter, Preben Maegaard. Preben gave us the history and evolution of the folkcenter in the global renewable energy movement. The Folkecenter was founded in 1974 and for much of its operation received 1.5 million dollars (not kroners or euros) of annually baseline funding with a peak of 25 employees. In 2002 the Danish government unfortunately pulled the Folkecenter baseline funding. Now the Folkecenter is primarily an educational facility providing tours for school and industry groups. Their research efforts are focused upon a wave energy test facility.
On our way back to Copenhagen, we stopped in the world famous Legoland. Built in 1968, it is the Disneyworld of Denmark complete with lego-themed roller coaster rides. Granted Legoland is no longer owned by Lego; The Danish Legoland with its US and German locations are now US owned and operated.

Yet the primary reason for the trip to Denmark was meeting with the biodiesel group at Novozymes. Piedmont Biofuels recently received some grant funding for enzymatic biodiesel production research from the NC Biofuels Center in collaboration with the Chatham County Economic Development Corporation and Novozymes. The meeting with Novozymes team was great and Per was an excellent host. We spent the late afternoon on a walking tour in Christiana. Christiana is an autonomous zone or “free-town” that started in 1971. It is essentially a well-established community squat- full with all walks of houses, tipis, camping tent areas, restaurants, cafes, and even solar arrays. As we walked the community, Greg and I took note of similarities and differences to the “Bubble.” There is a significant amount of controversy and often protests now that the Danish government is working to “normalize” the community.

As part of our meetings in Copenhagen, Greg and I also got to visit the Chemical and Management Engineering departments at the Danish Technical University (DTU). DTU is also a collaborative partner in this sustainable biodiesel project – They are quite advanced in evaluating the life-cycle analyses (LCA) of industrial process. For this project, DTU is evaluating the LCA of both chemical catalysis and enzymatic catalysis for biodiesel production. Collaboration with DTU will help our understanding of our current energy balance research. But now that we are back- we have tons of work to do on our enzymatic project.

Original post by Rachel

For the second time this year I have taken a stab at calculating how much rainwater is in our fishpond.

Moya and Kate have done a remarkable job of populating “Cuba” with vegetables, and we have done our best to supply their garden with rainwater from the pond.

Watering gardens out of elevated totes is easy to comprehend. You can tell when you catch 275 gallons on a good rain, and you can tell when you have delivered it all to the garden.

It’s a different story for a pond.

We manually pump rainwater out of the pond into an elevated tote on a homemade water tower, and it gravity feeds Cuba. It is easy to know home much water we pump, and it is wonderful feedback on how hard it is to deliver water to where it is needed, but one of the unanswered questions is how much water is in the pond.

On both occasions I have turned to Cornell University. They have a Commercial Farm Pond Management Series that seems to provide the most clarity.

To survey the pond my friend Gary and I ran a rope from end to end and side to side. It is about 63′ by 70.’ Small pond. We then launched Sage on a kayak to take depth samples. This was daring on her part, since the pond is known to be packed full of giant catfish and water snakes. She pulled four depth samples across each axis.

Zafer, Arlo and I did the same thing earlier this year, but we lost the data.

Today the pond is down about a foot and a half. We calculated that when it is at the top of the standpipe it would hold 70K gallons of water. We have put a valve on the end of the standpipe, which allows us to raise the water level to the top of the dam. Our projection when full is 120K gallons of water.

We need to learn this stuff. If the average wasteful American consumer requires 80 gallons of water per day, it is good to know how much our unsustainable family consumes. It is fascinating to note that when pumping the water by hand, early indications are that consumption would drop precipitously.

And we need to learn this because we need to build a system for Jason and Haruka at Edible Earthscape. They are about to bring another two acres of cultivation along, and it is to be rain water powered-from a pond.

Next thing to implement is filtration. Pond water is full of algae and pollen and scum and stuff that will plug drip tape and soaker hoses. We will probably need to hold that back with sand, or something. We are not there yet.  The last issue of 15-501 Magazine featured Arlo in a rain water collection article.  While they might not print it if it wasn’t true, the reality is we have a long way to go before we have our heads around rain water delivery systems.

Once we have that figured out, we can move on drag coefficients and pressure losses and gallons per acre for maximum yield.

For now it is good to know how much water fits in a pond…

Original post by Lyle

About twenty of us met in the Plant Kitchen the other day to pulverize the idea of becoming one entity.

For a while now we have been operating as two entities.  Piedmont Biofuels Coop, on a bend of the Pittsboro Moncure Road, and Piedmont Biofuels Industrial, on the eastern edge of Pittsboro.

One collects feedstocks from area eateries.  One buys feedstock from global commodity markets. One does tours every Sunday the other does tours once a month.  One makes four thousand gallons of on spec. fuel a month.  The other does that in a day.

To adequately describe the entangled web between the two is high on impossible-or would take an entire book.  All we know for sure is that occasionally the two entities find themselves working at cross-purposes.  Out of alignment.  One hurts the other.

Moya has introduced us all to the concept of “personal BTUs,” which is a unit of energy we all spend talking amongst ourselves. See is a fan of Coop structure.  And she is a fan of alignment.  As the Grease Goddess on project, she also holds the cards to everybody’s future.

At the heart of “alignment” discussions is the idea that we can stop squandering personal BTUS negotiating with one another, and instead turn that energy to the outside world.

After a month of discussions, passionate arguments, and pulverization, we have decided to join forces.  Forget Coop.  Forget Industrial.  We have elected to enter the future as simply Piedmont Biofuels.  We are going to take the personal BTUs saved in the process, and invest them in more meaningful things.

Like the membership.  Or is increasing grease collections.  Or in eliminating debt.  And expenses.

As far as we can tell, we have four constituencies to serve.  We need to take care of the members.  And the employees.  And the investors.  And the creditors.

Easy.  As long as we have all oars in the water, and as long as we are all pulling in the same direction, everyone can win by becoming one Piedmont.

Members first.  We think we can do better here.  It appears the universal truth behind Cooperative endeavors is that they line up like a pyramid-or Maslow’s hierarchy.  At the base, the overwhelming numbers of members just want biodiesel.  They want the B100 Community Trail to be stocked and working, they have never visited our Moncure location, they don’t come to annual meetings, they just want to fill up and drive.  They like being free of the petroleum grid.

For them, as we move forward together as one Piedmont, we are going to cut the Trail price back to 3.50 a gallon.  That’s a one-dollar drop, and we will make it happen as soon as we can get new signage and the programming done.

The next tier of the triangle of members-smaller and mysterious-is those people who just want to belong.  We have long sold memberships to faraway people, and we have never understood why.  Why would someone in St. Louis mail in 50.00 a year?  We have never understood it, until now.  People have been cheering for us, people want to belong to us, and we are going to broaden this part of our member base.

More parties.  More member events.  More communication.  We are going to continue to escort North Carolina into the low carbon future that awaits us, and we are happy to expand as a membership organization. It appears we will be going beyond biodiesel. The Abundance Foundation has agreed to offer a discount on its workshops to Piedmont members.  “Belonging” is something we can deliver.  Screech is about to erect five new greenhouses.  He’ll be looking for volunteers who want to get their head around greenhouse construction.

At the pinnacle of the triangle are those who care deeply about Coop governance, and who run for the board and are fully engaged.  That’s us.  And we will leave that in tact.  Members will elect a Board of Directors who will advise management on how to proceed in the best interest of the membership.

There are a bunch of us who are personally looking forward to interacting with members again.

Next there are the employees.  For them we are converting twenty five percent of our stock into an employee equity compensation plan so that we can be employee owned.  We will be rolling out option agreements in the next quarter.  Preliminary plan is in place, and is modeled in part on the plan done by our friends at Southern Energy Management.

Next there are the investors.  On the one hand they have agreed to being diluted, on the other hand they stand to benefit from alignment.  They are good.

And finally there are our creditors.

This fusion of organizations will improve our fiscal health.  Losses will end.  Assets will mop up liabilities. Those activities that  cash flow will be nourished to flourish, and those expenses that were holding us back will go away.

No jobs are lost.  Momentum is gained.  All lenders will continue to get paid, and some stagnant debt will go away.  Creditors will love this union.

That bend in the Moncure Road that has long been the home to our small scale biodiesel plant will convert back to farming and human habitation.  That will align us with landowners and neighbors and regulators-many of whom have felt our activities were exceeding what the space could metabolize.

In the grand experiment that is Piedmont Biofuels, this isn’t our first circuitous route.  Distribution began over here, was transferred over there, and back again, before realizing that really it should have been like “this” in the first place.

Same with education.  Started at the College, headed to the Coop, got picked up by Abundance, and back to the College it went.  Not bad.  Just not linear.  My guess is that education will go up a notch by having us all under one roof.

Workforce development is the same way.  Many of us believe deeply in the internship program.  And it will live on.  All current internship commitments are being met as we become one.

I would dearly like to say there are no losers here, but it appears home brewing will incur a setback.  That could be a temporary thing (all aspects of our project have endured temporary setbacks in the past), or it could be permanent-based on the passion and the viability of the homebrew enthusiasts.  We are open.

Tours will live on-only the tchotche will not have to be toted around.  The project will benefit greatly from a unified fleet, with one insurance policy, and a unified payroll, with one health plan for employees.  It will enjoy reduced rent, reduced utilities, and reduced taxes.

One Piedmont Biofuels is just a good thing.

I should note that this idea has been perennial.  In this iteration it traveled around the project for about a month and a half before reaching consensus.  After endless lunches and meetings and emotional discharges we forged agreement with the Coop Board of Directors, Industrial investors, landowners, and employees to put together a picture that creditors would simply love.

Whew.  Big job.  Feels good.  Everyone involved has done lots of work.

I feel like the Zen priest approaching the hot dog wagon on the street corner.  When it is my turn to order, I simply ask the vendor to “Make me one with everything.”

While I have tried to make this entry as clear as possible, I’m guessing I have failed to answer all questions from all comers.  I’ll be in the Control Room all week, and the fusing of our two organizations is underway now.  Email me.  Or call me.  919-321-8260 if you would like clarification on any part of this fusion….

Original post by Lyle

When Tami was in the throes of the opening of Chatham Marketplace, we went there a lot.

To pick stuff up.  To have meetings.  To buy stuff.  And of course the boys were in tow.  At one point Zafer melted down with the now classic phrase, “We are just grocery store people.”

He was right.

Nowadays, however, Chatham Marketplace is well underway without us, and we have moved on.

Months ago I took a load of scrap metal to Lee Iron and Metal and encountered a strange fiberglass cone that made no sense at all.  I believe I was traveling with my nephew David.

When I pointed out to Poly Cohen (the founder of the place) that he had no use for fiberglass, he gave it to me.  It took several tow straps to get it on the Dodge, and to get it home without blowing away.

When it arrived at Summer Shop, Tami was suspicious.  It looked like more crap to her.  But I explained that Poly had given it to us in recognition of our fiberglass anniversary, and that it was beautiful, and that it was a valuable score from the waste stream.

She reluctantly acquiesced.

Months later my friend Jim Nitsch came by and we discussed the piece as an object’ dart.

We agreed that it needed to become a mushroom, and that it needed to be planted on the dam of the fishpond to provide shade and shelter from summer rains.  We agreed on a base, and a design, and we found an appropriate tree for the stem, and Jim worked his magic to create the latest addition to our art collection.

I would call it collaboration.  Zafer would say Jim did the work.

However we describe it, we now have a glorious mushroom on the dam of the pond.  And it is a place we love to gather.  We go there to feed to fish.  And to watch the snakes.  And the herons.  And the frogs.  And we go there to take in the coming of night.  Sitting quietly on the dam allows us to watch the swallows, and bats, and owls that congregate there.

We have become mushroom people.  Jim took this photo as he pulled up one day, and his caption in email read, “The fun thing is, this is not staged.”

Original post by Lyle