Grant Narrative

May 2004 | June 2004 | July 2004 | August 2004 | September 2004 | October 2004 | November 2004 | December 2004 | January 2005 | February 2005 | March 2005 | April 2005 | May 2005 | June 2005

May 2004

On the 9th of May, Leif and Lyle and Rachel met on Kilby Island for a Piedmont Biofuels annual retreat.

One important item that they discussed, which is actually more related to Central Carolina Community College, was the news that their biofuels program has been awarded a 52 thousand dollar grant from the State Energy Office.

The purpose of the grant is to create a mobile, biodiesel processor that can be pulled to various venues around North Carolina to demonstrate how biodiesel can be made and how biodiesel can help many aspects of life in North Carolina.

We spent hours discussing and designing this grant. We agreed that the mobile unit should bear the logos of the State Energy Office, the Department of Energy, and Central Carolina Community College. We discussed the inclusion of the logos of the many corporate sponsors who had offered cash and in-kind donations for the matching amounts, but decided that it would make the project too busy. We considered giving our corporate and community sponsors a mention in the brochure that was to accompany the mobile processor unit.

The contentious issue of the day was whether or not the mobile unit should include a methanol recovery unit. Lyle argued that the inclusion of such was pointless since the unit would only be producing small quantities of fuel. Leif and Rachel overruled with the argument that the quantity of fuel was secondary to the demonstration of “best practices” in biodiesel production, and that methanol recovery was a critical part of demonstrating best practices.

Lyle drew a mobile unit on a scrap of paper, complete with methanol recovery built in. A current standing joke amongst the group is his note atop a relatively complex drawing which says, “Leif, pls build.” Please see attached sketch.

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June 2004

It turns out that the news of being “awarded a grant” and getting money to get started are two very different things. Before money can start flowing into the project, a purchase order must be received from the State Energy Office.

Lyle and Rachel both contacted the State Energy Office, via Sterling Bowen, to see the best procedures for administering the grant. This being our first grant, and new to how things work, we began a new journey in working in grant paradigm. Apparently a contract number must first come from the Department of Administration (of which perhaps the State Energy Office is a part?), before any purchase order can be generated. As first time grant recipients, and newcomers to the granting process, we were deeply appreciative of the patience all parties involved.

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July 2004

In the first week of July, we received a Purchase Order from Sterling Bowen at the State Energy office. Yeah! We can start building our Mobile Processor!

Most of July, I spent learning the ropes on administering the supplies, equipment, and personnel for the grant. Over the summer the personnel at Central Carolina Community College changed brining us a new Grants Administrator in Sanford, Tamara Joyner. Tamara has worked diligently to make this Clean Technology Demonstration a success.

I also met with designers and technical personnel from Blast Internet Services to start the website design.

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August 2004

In August, we continued the work on the website design. We also started the search for the perfect trailer for the foundation of our educational demonstration.

Back when the grant was being formulated, we collected some matching donations. Lee Iron and Metal, for instance, donated a massive stainless vessel that would be perfect as a primary reactor. Lyle stored it at Summer Shop for over a year.

The original trailer that was earmarked for the project, a motorcycle trailer that was fished out of the Chatham County woods and had been stored by another corporate sponsor, Moncure Chessworks, was deemed too small and would have to be replaced. It was traded away for a 180-gallon tank for the biodiesel distribution project.

It was important to the group that the base trailer for the Clean Technology Demonstration Unit would be recycled. At one point along the way Rachel indicated that the trailer could be fabricated by inmates for the Community College, but this idea was vetoed.

Lyle located an abandoned landscaping trailer in Goldston. He retrieved it from the woods and hauled it to the Central Carolina Community College for restoration and for Rachel to make it road-worthy. The trailer received new tires, mounted and balanced, in addition to an overall braking safety evaluation.

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September 2004

The demo trailer is off to get a paint job! Rachel completed the trailer inspection;
Lyle toted it to Bear Creek for a paint job and a new bed, made from the recycled flooring of another truck, completing with metal drains for easy cleaning.

A week later, we have a beautiful trailer, and an amazing reactor vessel!

Leif is currently working on reactor design: covering issues of utilizing ethanol, in the biodiesel reaction, researching correct fittings for the processor, methanol recovery, and developing a master parts list for ordering.

Leif, Lyle, and Rachel also met to discuss energy requirements of the trailer unit to determine proper sizing of a diesel generator for the mobile demonstration.

Chuck Mann from the Automotive department suggested visiting Delk’s Army Surplus in Asheboro – the often carry quality, used generators for good prices. Lyle and Rachel plan a field trip to Delk’s!

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October 2004

The month of October started out with a strong drive for finding a generator. Lyle and Rachel made the trip to Delk’s Army Surplus and picked up a beautiful 10kW military surplus diesel generator. This generator is in great condition, it was surplus from the US Forest Service with a low amount on hours in use. Meanwhile, Leif is in on the road to make a sales meeting with a company MG Newell. Newell is providing the grant project with a significant amount of its sanitary fittings on the biodiesel processor. These fittings are key for adapting the recycled tank for correct pressure and professional presentation.

Once we purchased the generator the final designs started to take place. We consulted with a few industrial experts on weight distribution of the generator and processor on the trailer. Tuesday from Chessworks, a local metal working shop, came to the project on this and other trailer modifications that needed to be made. Once the generator and processor were bolted in place, the remaining work is on plumbing and testing the equipment. Our parts orders from Grainger and Newell were key for this portion of the project and delayed some forward movement until the end of October. I continued my documentation of the entire project that has also included feeding pictures of the mobile unit’s progress on to the web design part of the project.

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November 2004

The first two weeks was the mad dash to our first workshop at the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association’s conference on the weekend of November 12th through the14th of 2004. In these two weeks, many people in the community, both official grant collaborators and friends in the biodiesel movement pitched in to see the mobile unit completed. Lyle described the frenzy to complete the project in Energy Blog, in an entry entitled Maiden Voyage.

Leif worked steadily on plumbing for the reactor. Chessworks prepared the metal background for our logos that will go in two places on the trailer. Stacey Emerick jumped in and did a terrific job of painting the logos. We affixed the logos of the community college (CCCC), the NC State Energy office, and the Department of Energy to both the front and back of the trailer.

Off it went to Asheville for its first workshop at the annual meeting of the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association. It went very well, and over fifty people attended. That’s more than we are accustomed to, and attribute the high attendance in part to the eye-popping nature of the mobile unit.

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December 2004

We want to take this unit around to visit all who sponsored the project, and have decided that doing so should double as a press tour. We are certain that the folks at Lee Iron and Metal, who generously donated our primary reactor vessel, would love to see it live, and if we are going to haul it to Sanford, we might as well arrange a date with the local paper so that the mobile unit can extend its outreach for biodiesel.

We would also like to take it by the NC Solar Center, to show it to our friends up there, and by the State Energy Office, so that the people who fund these types of projects can see the results up close—rather than merely on a website.

We are in the midst of doing media preparation and planning dates for the next workshops, and we are in discussions with North Carolina A&T about having them host a workshop in the spring, and also in talks with UNC-Wilmington to get a venue in the eastern part of the state.

Larry Shirley, from the State Energy Office was scheduled to come to Pittsboro to visit the unit, and to get a picture taken with the president of Central Carolina Community College, but his visit has been rescheduled for January 11th.

Something we had not previously anticipated is that the mobile unit gets a lot of attention on refinery tours because it has methanol recovery built in, which our production setup does not. Even when it is not doing workshops, it has become a teaching aide on refinery tours—which means it is currently reaching dozens of people per month even when it’s parked!

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January 2005

The first week back to school after the holidays was dedicated primarily to our meeting with Larry Shirley from the State Energy office on January 11th, 2005. Leif worked steadily on some new design configurations to include a pressure gauge inline on the biodiesel processor. Meanwhile, Rachel met with designers from Blast Internet on the brochure to accompany the mobile processor during workshops. We are also preparing for the CCCC Biofuels Grassroots Conference at the end of this month. We have educators and activists across the U.S. traveling to Pittsboro to learn about biodiesel as a renewable fuel. We have workshops planned on diesel versus biodiesel emissions, fuel quality strategies, education materials, and biofuels curriculum development. The meeting with Larry Shirley went well with both presses from CCCC and the Chatham Record. Lyle Estill documented his visit well in the following blog entry. Unfortunately, Rachel was unable to be present due to a family emergency. The Grassroots Conference also was a grand success with over 100 attendants from farmers to Anne Tazewell from the Solar Center and Tobin Freid from Triangle Clean Cities. The Friday night discussion on how one comes to biodiesel made for an interesting round table. From this conference we made a few contacts on future workshops plus our draft version of the Clean Tech brochure made its debut. In February, we are locking in dates at both Wilson Technical Community College and North Carolina A & T in Greensboro for workshops.

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February 2005

This month began with the grant administration meeting hosted by the State Energy Office which Leif attended in Winston-Salem. Leif came back with some extremely helpful information. It was helpful to learn about the Energy Office's reporting needs and see how ours dove tail in. We were pleased to learn that answering questions about biodiesel or our Clean Tech Demonstration (most of ours come by phone and email) are billable time. Additionally, this month we continued our regular planning meetings where we setup 3 dates where we and the Clean Tech Mobile Biodiesel unit will make appearances. The NC A&T event at the Small Farm Show will be a full day workshop. We continue to host a handful of valuable tours; The most noteworthy was with 25 high school science students from Chapel Hill. They will be building a biodiesel reactor as part of their class.

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March 2005

The beginning of March was filled with a strong interest in biofuels from the local media. A local paper, The Sanford Herald ran a story on the Biofuels education program at Central Carolina Community College. We discussed both the current Clean Technology project and the budding certificate in the Biofuels at CCCC. The story, "Learning to Burn," is available at: http://www.sanfordherald.com/articles/2005/03/09/news/news01.txt
"PITTSBORO - Fueled by constantly rising petroleum costs, a growing interest in available resources and rising awareness of American dependency on foreign oil supplies, the Biofuels program at Central Carolina Community College's Pittsboro campus is gaining ground with students seeking new ways to fill the tank. "

On March 17th, we traveled to Wake Forest University to work with a researcher in the Chemistry department on biodiesel fuel quality and analytical methods. While at Wake Forest, we tested several samples of biodiesel, some produced locally and some commercially manufactured. It was an excellent learning experience for future biodiesel workshops.

The weekend prior to March 22nd was devoted to trailer and processor preparation. On Saturday and Sunday, we re-routed the cooling hoses from the diesel generator, flushed the cooling system, and purged air. This was essential for proper heat transfer from the generator to the biodiesel processor. We assembled all the necessary materials for making a batch of biodiesel (oil, methanol, KOH).

On the 22nd of March, Leif and I attended the Small Farm Show at North Carolina A&T. We left early that morning to set up by 8 am on site. After making a few adjustments to the processor, we successfully ran a batch of biodiesel for approximately an hour. Before and after the demonstration, Leif and I spoke to many farmers about either growing crops for biomass or utilizing biodiesel on farm. We also met with Dr. Shabazi from NC A&T and discussed his new biodiesel processor and how the University will be integrating biodiesel on its farm site. Overall, the workshop went smoothly and the interest in biofuels continues to grow.

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April 2005

April was Earth Month and as such Clean Tech was booked.  From the Environmental Protection Agency in RTP to the main campus at Central Carolina Community College to the NC Zoo in Asheboro, we were spreading the word.  In addition to  promoting biodiesel to shoppers at Whole Foods market in Raleigh, running our normal rounds of Sunday coop tours, and responding to our normal rounds of weekly biofuels related questions (email, phone, and in person) we also shared the story of biodiesel in NC to nearly 400 visitors during CFSA Farm Tour!  We also had a steady flow of meaningful conversations during our three day stint at the Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival in Silk Hope. Rachel also spent an evening with the Sanford Lions Club and gave a biodiesel 101 talk. Overall, in the month of April we logged over 120 hours of education and outreach on biodiesel for the clean technology project.

Farm tour blog entry:
http://www.biofuels.coop/blog/archives/000198.html

Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival blog entry:
http://www.biofuels.coop/blog/archives/000200.html

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May 2005

In May, we had set our sights on the beach! We had been contacted by Roey Rosenblith, UNC-W student and Trace Ramsey, a former CCCC Biofuels student to lead a biodiesel workshop in Wilmington. So Leif and I headed out the first weekend of May for Wilmington. Roey prepared the weekend before with marketing the workshop at an Earth Day festival. Roey is working hard to start a biodiesel cooperative in the Wilmington area; Cape Fear Biofuels coop is what they are calling themselves today. At the Wilmington workshop, we prepared information handouts on biodiesel production, handling and use. Leif explained the basics of production while I went through the steps of titration of used or new vegetable oil. After titration we ran a test batch before the running the larger processor.  We had everyone in class take part in the “processing” of the test batch. Once our test batch proved successful we proceeded with the larger 20 gallon batch of biodiesel. This included running the diesel generator for process heat and electricity for the pump. While the larger batch was running, we took the workshop aside for a more detailed discussion of biodiesel distribution, local regulations, and how to start a cooperative biodiesel project. Overall, the workshop was a success and received a good amount of positive feedback.

Mobile Biodiesel Processors hits the road: Destination Wilmington!		Leif explains the biodiesel process to workshop participants in Wilmington, NC

June 2005

The later part of May and the beginning of June were solely focused upon a biofuels presentation for U.S. Congressman Bob Etheridge. In mid May we were contacted by the Congressman’s office about hosting an information session on biofuels.

We were happy to oblige.

So, On June 3^rd, 2005 we received a visit from Bob Etheridge and his staffer, Jason Sulham. Rachel gave a short talk on the evolution of the biofuels program, this Clean Technology project, and the future of biofuels education. The group also included administration from CCCC, President Matt Garrett, Vice-President, John Slade, Dean Preston Sellars, and Provost Karen Allen. After the introductory talk, we toured the mobile biodiesel processor and discussed its operation. Afterwards, the group headed a few miles down the road to the new commercial biodiesel facility underway by Piedmont Biofuels. The day truly showcased how educational institutions can spawn innovative industry and how industry helps promote the educational entity. For the CCCC biofuels program has been instrumental in the success of a few new biodiesel businesses in the area, Piedmont Biofuels included. For more information on the tour with U.S. Congressman Bob Etheridge see the following:

Bob Etheridge
http://www.cccc.edu/PR/065_June_2005/etheridge_Jun7.html

The following week, a few of us traveled to the Southeast Biofuels workshop in Gatlinburg, Tennessee to represent the CCCC Biofuels Program and Piedmont Biofuels.

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