From time to time I invite celebrity guests to furnish material in the Blog. The first was Rachel’s wildly popular “Elsbett Workshop” entry, which still receives considerable traffic. That was followed by Kaitlin’s “Letter to the President,” which still holds the record for the most entry posts.

Today’s entry comes from Chris Jude. He spent some time with us last summer, and documented his visit. Here is his Summer Internship Journal, published with his permission.

Chris Jude
Summer Internship Journal
Piedmont BioFuels
July through September

Week One

Chris went from "First Intern" to Production to Seattle to Design Build. He is currently flirting with rainwater systems. He's a socialite, an organizer, and a pillar of Piedmont's project.

I started off my internship by driving up to Washington DC with Rachel and Leif for the National Biodiesel Board annual meeting. But first, we drove into DC to meet ëgirl-Mark’ Alovert, a ëfamous’ biodiesel homebrew guru from Berkeley, California. Rachel, Leif and Mark were leading a biodiesel homebrew intensive course in nearby Maryland. I attended the class and was exposed to a full day of biodiesel brewing by some of the country’s best homebrewers. It was a long day, with a lot of information being thrown around. I was being exposed firsthand to so many processes and procedures I’d read about with minor confusion for the last two years.
We all attended the NBB board meetings Monday and Tuesday. The place was full of Big Soy executives and commercial biodiesel processors from around the country. Our big hope was to see the NBB lower it’s small producer member costs from $5000 per year to $2500, and the fee per gallon produced lowered from $.10 to $.05. This was voted on and passed, but not without opposition from Archer Daniels Midland, a big gmo-SOY corporation who weighs heavy on the board. Also discussed in the conference was the tax credit the NBB wanted to see pass, which would give a tax credit of up to $1 per gallon of biodiesel sold. This was considered to give a major jolt to the industry, and we actually did just see that bill passed this October. The conference was a bit intimidating, being with all these intense biodiesel activists, and company suits, and me being so new into the scene. It was a good experience though and I feel like I could do it again much more comfortably.
We headed back to Pittsoboro on Tuesday afternoon, and I settled in at the refinery. On Wednesday Leif gave me a tour of the processing center, and now the real work started. We made a batch, washed an old batch and I learned how to work with their equipment. I also worked with Piedmont Biofuels 1600 gal tanker truck, filling up a co-op members vehicle. Throughout the rest of my internship I was pretty much the brewer on my own (for better or worse!). I got involved with plans to get the co-op composting their waste glycerin properly, as they currently had a giant ëglycerin slide’ behind the processing area where the compost was going horribly wrong. Rachel introduced me to Central Carolina Community College’s Doug Jones, who was the head of their ëland lab’ organic farm. Doug is a composting expert, and we discussed what would be needed to make a proper compost for the co-op.
On Friday I worked with Leif to make a good lab documenting sheet for Biodiesel batches. We wanted to have a concise and clear format for documenting the making of a batch of fuel, and a decent set of instructions to work their processor. With this documenting sheet we could have a history of previous batches to help with troubleshooting later on.

Week Two
I started off the second week washing my first ever large batch of biodiesel. I did a supplies run to get the co-op’s 250 gal fueling tank in operation. With this pump in operation, co-op members could easily fill-up with commercial B100 (100% Biodiesel, the only place to buy it in NC!) without having to get Rachel or Leif to start up the big tanker truck. This was a big step for the co-op’s commercial fuel distribution. On Thursday I attended a fundraiser for a local group who wants to start a commercial fuel plant in the Piedmont area. And on Friday I attended a Biofuels conference at NC State, which was discussing the future of Biodiesel in NC. There were some interesting speakers there, including Piedmont Biofuel’s own Lyle Estill, who gave a great opening speech. I met Anne Tazewell from the NC Solar Center, who is organizing a grant to bring biodiesel to more places in NC. We spoke about bringing some grant money to ASU for the Appalcart and other ASU diesel vehicles. After the conference I went shopping for tanks and pumps which Piedmont Biofuels has received a grant for. They will put about 6 500 gal tanks of Biodiesel at various businesses around the Triad, so that more businesses will be able to fuel up with biodiesel.

Week Three

The third week began dirty. I pumped a bunch of oil from the storage tank into the processor, and realized it was full of water and gunk. So I had to spend quite a while cleaning out the 200 gal storage tank and pumping the oil back into the tank to process it. Such is the way when working with used grease. I spent the afternoon talking with Anne Tazewell and Chris Turner from Appalcart about the possibility of bringing a biodiesel grant to ASU. I met with Doug Jones to load up material for the compost at the co-op. Nothing like shoveling chicken manure on a hot Piedmont afternoon. We got the compost started and a few days later I checked the temperature and it was at 130 F, quite nice for a good organic compost. I spent most of the rest of the week making another batch and trying to get more chemicals for the process. This turned out to be a hassle, once I drove to Raleigh to pick up KOH from a chemical distributor I found out that you can’t have 50 lbs of KOH in a passenger vehicle. This put a stop to the final batch I would make with Piedmont Biofuels.

Week Four

I came back in September to help with a class that girl Mark and Rachel were leading on biodiesel basics. It was a great class and since girl Mark is such a biodiesel celebrity, folks had driven in from all over the south, there was even a person attending from Canada! We went over a lot of information, from maintaining your car with biodiesel, to chemistry, making mini-batches, washing fuel, quality control testing, and even constructing a processor and wash tank. It was good to come back down and help with the class, brush up on everything I’d learned. I got to meet biodieselers from around the state and the region. Rachel told me that they missed their old fuel maker. The folks at Piedmont are so busy with all the great biodiesel promotion and distribution and teaching about the fuel that they barely have time to make it anymore! It’s a great operation, and North Carolina is blessed with the most knowledgeable and active Biodiesel Co-operative in the east. It’s been great making contact with these folks, and the experience definitely has helped my knowledge of the subject. Last week the Boone Biodiesel Co-op made their very first batch of fuel on equipment I constructed with plans from girl Mark.

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