Never Ever, Ever Bored
David finished his internship with us around Christmas. He’s still here, building a new reactor, and jamming on odds and ends. Here is his journal entry from his time with us:
David went from Intern to founding our Design Build group. We understand that sex sells, and while David has become a plank in the Piedmont platform, not everyone who interns with us will find themselves smothered by beautiful women.
From the first day I got here I realized I was about to be submerged in an ocean of activity. Arrive Monday at noon, unpack, assemble and test methanol recovery with Leif, unpack some more, go to first class on Diesel Technology with professor Johnny Frye…my new housemate… go home, finish unpacking… Twas a kick-ass day, and a somewhat simplified version of what every day for the rest of the internship would be like.
I came here already having built and used both an appleseed reactor and one of Tickell’s reactor designs in a 20 gallon steal drum, and I was ready to move beyond JB weld, flat bottom 20 gallon tanks, carboy methoxide mixers and battery powered drill agitators. In college I made biodiesel for my work truck and the vehicle my band toured in. I’d only made about 60 gallons of bio (in ~10 gal batches) and had yet to run any vehicle on B100. I studied at University of Mary Washington and completed my undergrad in Sustainable Development. I had experience in organic farming, permaculture, green building, public action and volunteer organization.
My expectations here were high. I wanted to learn plumbing, welding, knowledge of different applications for different pumps, upsizing batches and processors, logistics of starting a coop, regulatory and tax issues, oilseed crop feedstocks applicable in Virginia (where I’m from) methanol recovery and treatment of waste products (wash water and glycerin). Leif, Lyle, Evan, Rachel, Tuesday, Don, John and Doug helped me to accomplish ever one of these goals. However, one of my additional goals while here was gaining the skills to implement my undergrad thesis, which was a feasibility study on producing biodiesel from onsite waste oil at the Univiersity of Mary Washington to be blended into the off-road fleet. I had the student’s and faculty’s support, but still needed to allocate the funds. Perhaps the one goal I missed out on while here was gaining experience with grant writing. It wasn’t that I did not have an opportunity to explore this, but more, I just didn’t have any time.
My projects here included plumbing tanks for biodiesel dispensing, design/build on the reactor for the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro, training the zoo staff on operation, building a cob solarium to heat the Tami tank, designing the Grease Warming Zone, making fuel, hosting Thursday night fuel training with John Bonitz, repairing the Mothership, Magnesol research/testing (I love this stuff…), plumbing the new wash tanks, building a greenhouse, volunteering at the CCCC land lab, composting glycerin, teaching middle and high school students about biodiesel and renewable energy, booth bunny duties at CFSA conference, Sustainable Transportation conference, Virginia Biofuels Conference, Virginia Tech Biofuels Forum, Refinery Sunday duties… building Industrial’s out door chessboard, straw bale solarium, kitchen, deck, and fuel terminal with Seth, Matt, and Tess, Classes on Renewable Energy, Seed Saving, Diesel Technology and Intro to Biofuels at Central Carolina Community College, and some how I found a little time to begin the SVO conversion on my truck.
The way it works here is simple. Make up your mind on what you want to do, run it by Leif, Lyle and Rachel, and they’ll support you in your endeavors. I accomplished all that I wanted to during my internship and hope that my activities here have benefited the coop and the movement as much as they’ve helped me.
The skills I’ve gained here have helped me to get a coop organized in my hometown of Fredericksburg, VA, which will hopefully very soon be fully operational and open to the public. I was initially drawn to biofuels for it’s potential for community development. Local, sustainable fuel has the potential to keep profits domestic, lower emissions and bring renderers, processors and users within a community into a network. I love to refute dissenters of the movement who say that Biofuels is not a global solution. My theory revolves on resolving issues at the community level, and if this happens everywhere, perhaps our concentric spheres of influence at the community level will some day meet one another. Biodiesel may not be a global solution, but it certainly is a community solution…and the last time I checked, we were a community.
My internship has ended, but I’m not quite ready to leave this place. I now reside at the Princess Palace with my canine companion Giant, in the shadows of the refinery sharing a wall with Mighty Joe Young the rooster. I work on the construction crew at Piedmont Industrial 3 days a week and am training as a teacher of the biofuels course for when I return to Fredericksburg. I’ve also had the privilege of helping pioneer the reactor design division of Piedmont Biofuels. Working with a brewery in Virginia I’ve acquired half a dozen prime tanks for biodiesel processing and have begun building and installing systems for the Brewery and a Farm in VA. And as of two days ago, I’ve agreed to furnish Chapel Hill High School with a tank and my supervision in helping them to build their processor. I was talking to the cosmic waiter the other day…kinda venting that I don’t just want to build processors. I want these reactors to radiate and cultivate the knowledge contained within them. I’ll build a reactor for anyone, or teach anyone who wants to learn, but the real value comes from teaching open minds who are seeking to make a difference in the world. Young minds. Sure as the sun rises, a few days later Julian from Chapel Hill High School emails me about their project. It don’t know where this theory of the Cosmic Waiter came from…but it has definitely become pivotal in every action of Piedmont Biofuels. I don’t know how long I’ll be down here, but I’m extremely thankful and in debt to Piedmont for the opportunities that they have helped to lay out for me.
