Growing Biodiesel from Local Fields
(Citizen-Times) Farmers, area restaurants and energy-conscious drivers could benefit from a pilot program to develop homegrown biofuels in the mountains.
Blue Ridge Biofuels, AdvantageWest, Biltmore Estate and other partners have been awarded a $130,000 grant from the Biofuels Center of North Carolina for a yearlong study of the F3 or “Field to Fryer to Fuel” program.
Blue Ridge Biofuels will produce edible oils from regionally grown oil seeds, sell these oils to restaurant partners for their frying needs and then recycle the used fryer oil into biodiesel.
“True sustainability is about getting multiple life cycles out of the same product,” said Woodrow Eaton, the managing partner of Blue Ridge Biofuels, which collects used vegetable oil from restaurants to create its biodiesel blends for area fleets and individual drivers.
…Under the pilot program, Biltmore Estate will plant 50 acres of canola, expecting to harvest 126,000 pounds of canola seeds next spring. READ MORE and MORE (Biofuels Center of North Carolina)
