ON TARGET AT THE SUSTAINABLE BIODIESEL SUMMIT

In Business, March-April, Vol. 29, No. 2, p. 10

In balance with local energy systems, biodiesel reflects a “reverence of interconnections” that ties consumers, distributors and producers throughout the community.

SaraHope Smith

AS THE United States biodiesel industry grows exponentially, so do the size of the production plants being built. Several years ago a plant that produced 20 million gallons of biodiesel per year (mgpy) defined the outer edge of production. Today plants are proposed at 60 or 80 mgpy of production, with 130 mgpy plants on the horizon. When these business people consider that we are consuming 20+ million barrels per day (mmbd)- the pressure is on to produce more. Many have forecasted that the biodiesel industry will follow the path of the oil industry toward megarefineries owned by a handful of global conglomerates.
Attendees at this years' Sustainable Biodiesel Summit in San Antonio, Texas are pushing back, advocating that “small is beautiful” also applies to our energy industry. For the past four years, the Sustainable Biodiesel Summit (SBS) has brought together dedicated individuals who are promoting a “sustainable,” community-based biodiesel industry model.
Many readers of this magazine are already familiar with the standard definition of sustainable: a process that can be continued indefinitely without depleting the energy or material resources or
systems on which it depends. Since biodiesel is made from renewable resources like oilseed crops, it is certainly renewable. Biodiesel is also cleaner burning and displaces petroleum. These things alone don't make it “sustainable” though. Not to the SBS group. The group is raising the bar for what can be considered sustainable in the biodiesel industry and aims to apply the standard UN definition of sustainability to a real life situation as critical as our fuel supply. The SBS is not about business as usual.
Sustainable biodiesel is produced and distributed regionally, sourced from locally harvested crops, and from unique attributes that develop based on the particularities of the region. It is in balance with the local energy systems. A relationship develops between the consumers and distributors, the producer and farmer, and ultimately throughout the community. It is about “reverence of interconnections.”
One of the basic precepts of this school of sustainability is that biodiesel is not going to meet all of our fuel demands. To build a sustainable transportation future, the 20 mmbd of petrol we are consuming needs to be offset by a variety of fuel, energy and transportation modalities - in addition to greater efficiency across the board. The silver bullet solution found in petroleum was unique and is not likely to be reproduced - especially with our current population growth and demand levels.
Summit participants largely agree that sustainable fuel, like food, is based in localized regional economies of scale. David Bean, a student in the Energy Management program at the Northwest Energy Efficiency Institute, comments on economic incentives for local focus: “The way prices are going with transport logistics, it's not going to be cost-effective to ship fuel over long distances.” There is growing awareness and recognition of the merits for the model of smaller, distributed biodiesel production plants, the future of fuel. The SBS is building community among those building these community networks.
STRATEGIES AND TECHNIQUES
Building this knowledge in the community, one panel offered strategies and techniques for financing and running smaller, locally owned biodiesel businesses. Bob King, President of Pacific Biodiesel of Hawaii, compared different business structures and limitations as they pertain to biodiesel producers. Tyson Keever of SeQuential Biofuels presented a case study of growing from a grassroots, volunteer-based group to a thriving business through actively involving their local community. Rob Del Bueno from the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy offered a unique model highlighting how the particularities of one's community can be assets. His small-scale, production/distribution units are coming to neighborhoods through a partnership with a regional nonprofit.
One of the major sustainability concerns around biofuels is the raw materials, or feedstocks, from which they are made. Sourcing the oil to make biodiesel from palm oil that is grown where rainforests were recently cleared, then transported halfway around the globe doesn't make sense. Yet it is a growing trend to feed the megarefineries.
Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) were created with this promise - feeding the masses. They are now prevalent among the oilseed crops that are used for biodiesel production, such as soy and canola. People are increasingly concerned about GMOs, to the point of being turned off from biofuels because of the potential threat they pose. The European Union has been warding off entry of GMOs into their food supply, but has finally bowed to pressure from the World Trade Organization to let them into their marketplace. The “eco-friendly fuel alternative” is reportedly a key reason.
On the Feedstocks panel, Jim Kleinschmit of Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) spoke about the Sustainable Biomass Production Principles and Practices that his organization has been creating with farmers. These practices avoid GMOs and over-reliance on petrol-based fertilizers. Soil health is the backbone of our budding bioeconomy. Professor Jack Brown of University of Idaho was asked to speak on soil health and the conflict between food and fuel.
One of the more promising feedstocks for biodiesel to displace major portions of current diesel use is algae. It is purported to produce 17 times more oil than the U.S.'s primary feedstock, soybeans. Panelist Shaine Tyson, formerly of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and currently of Rocky Mountain Consulting, shared that much of the research in the field is targeting GMO algae despite its fundamental position in the food chain. Kumar Plocher, President of Yokayo Biofuels, points out that if 17 times better yields don't produce enough, it is because people have not yet embraced the value of efficiency and conservation. “We need to find the highest yielding local strains of algae and develop those regionally.”
Although not specifically addressed this year, recovered waste grease as a feedstock was not far from attendees' minds. On break from the SBS, Ben Jordan of People's Fuel in San Francisco posited that the ideal relationship would be to produce biodiesel from non-GMO second use grease that was grown sustainably in the bioregions where the people eating the food and using the fuel live in. These types of relationships build a sense of place and connection that people are not currently accustomed to but are very interested in cultivating.
FUEL QUALITY THE CORNERSTONE OF THE INDUSTRY
Just like the petroleum industry took off after Standard Oil set the standards for petroleum fuel oil, the biodiesel industry's growth is reliant on quality standardization. Although there is a standard in place for biodiesel through ASTM and an ongoing process to improve that standard, the industry is still working on achieving those standards uniformly.
Dr. Randall von Wedell of Cytoculture, who has been involved in creating the quality standards and helping people achieve them for more than a decade, addressed this issue sharing his latest research. He has also developed a low-cost, field test for biodiesel quality. Special guest, Dr. Martin Mittelbach, Professor at the University of Graz, in Austria, an author and biodiesel pioneer, presented on how Europe has addressed issues of quality. Rocky Mountain Biodiesel's Bob Armantrout rounded the session out by breaking down the basics of using a GC or Gas Chromatograph - a central instrument in quality testing. Beth Calabotta, a chemical engineer in attendance, marveled that this was the best session she'd ever attended on fuel quality.
IT'S HOW YOU DO IT!
As leaders in the sustainability of the industry, SBS attendees want to reduce the energy inputs and the waste stream outputs as much for the energy balance as for the dollar savings. One of the great innovators who presented at this year's SBS was Charles Fiedler of Biodiesel Industries in Denton, Texas. Fiedler located near a landfill to tap the landfill gases for use in their heating needs. By doing so, they reduce their energy load on the grid, offsetting the use of coal or other pollutants to create the electricity that might have otherwise been used.
Another innovative company, Green Range Fuels, was asked to speak especially on their reuse of the glycerol which is a by-product of biodiesel production. Green Range burns the glycerol to create heat, which they employ in their production process.
Dr. Goran Jovanovic, Professor at the University of Oregon, spoke about his patent-pending microprocessors, which allow major reductions in space and chemical consumption and processing time. His microprocessor “plant,” scaled to make a million gallons of biodiesel per year, would fit the size of a closet.
TOGETHER, WE CAN DO IT
Aside from sharing best practices and technology advances, the Summit also serves to galvanize and strengthen the industry professionals working toward a more sustainable industry. As a multiyear attendee, Dan Freeman of Dr. Dan's Alternative Fuelwerks in Seattle reflected, “The best thing [about the SBS] is to be in a like-minded peer group where you get to experience that you're working together for the greater common good. It's lonely out there fighting a leviathan to keep biodiesel sustainable against the threats of big business and foreign palm oil threats.”
Locally owned biodiesel businesses using local feedstocks to serve local demand has another surprising benefit - when national industry participants get together they are not competitors. This allows for tremendous information sharing and collaboration, as well as a strong spirit of teamwork. The more we see how others are doing things successfully in their region, the more ideas we have about how to improve our own processes.
As awareness builds, standards are being developed, so consumers can target sustainable biodiesel. In addition to the industry efforts towards truly sustainable biodiesel, consumers can help guide the industry by choosing where and what they purchase. Keep an eye out for a grading system that will help you discern what has gone into the biodiesel you buy.
Visit the website (being updated) for conference recordings and to find out more about what's happening with sustainability and biodiesel: www.sustainable-biodiesel.org. Please email questions or comments to SaraHope@ sustainable-biodiesel.org.

SaraHope Smith, cofounder of BioFuel Oasis (a women operated and owned cooperative) and board and staff member of the Biodiesel Council of California (www.Bio
dieselCouncil.org), was an organizer of three of the four conferences that have become the SBS. This year, she teamed with Emily Bockian Landsburg of Fry-O-Diesel, and Rachel Burton of Piedmont Biofuels to produce the 2007 Sustainable Biodiesel Summit.

Sidebar
LOCALLY-FUELED BIODIESEL PRODUCTION
DURING 2006, nine new bio-diesel plants came online in the United States, increasing the annual biodiesel production capabilities by 90 million gallons. One of those new plants - with an annual capacity of one million gallons - was built by Piedmont Biofuels in Pittsboro, North Carolina. Although small in production capacity, Piedmont Biofuels is respected as an innovative model for community-based fuel production. In 2003, Piedmont Biofuels began as a retail and wholesale distributor of biodiesel, the first in Central North Carolina. In 2004, without any regional production available, Piedmont invested in building a production facility by recycling an abandoned industrial manufacturing site.
In its approach to sustainable biodiesel production, Piedmont first examined the feedstock resources within a 100-mile radius of the facility. The plant is a multifeedstock facility that can produce fuel from animal fats or vegetable oils, waste or agricultural. The plant at Piedmont Biofuels is equipped with an on-site analytics lab for fuel quality control and a fuel terminal that can accommodate top-loading and bottom-loading fuel tankers, or smaller capacity storage like 250 gallon totes. In the renovation of the facility, solar hot water, photovoltaics, composting operations, vermiculture, sustainable agriculture, cogeneration, green building materials, daylighting, and edible flooring technologies all were incorporated. For more information on Piedmont Biofuels, see www.biofuels.coop.

Rachel Burton,
Piedmont Biofuels

Copyright 2007, The JG Press, Inc.