It is because of a desire to preserve and enhance my surroundings that I joined the team at STARworks, to make sustainable biodiesel from waste veggie oil from local sources. I learned about biodiesel several years ago from a friend, Mark Wienand, who had a VW Jetta TDI running on SVO(straight veggie oil) with a GreaseCar conversion kit. I wanted to learn even more, so I took a biofuels class over in Pittsboro led by Rachel and Leif, folks now at Piedmont Biofuels.
All that information percolated in my mind as I continued a career in IT, working in small liberal arts colleges, Pfeiffer and St Andrews, until I read an article about a biodiesel project in Star, which was over a river and through the woods from home -- perfect! The project is funded by a grant from the Biofuels Center of North Carolina and the equipment is being built by the folks over at Piedmont Biofuels. We will be making biodiesel soon, early August if everything goes as planned. Speaking of plans, I need to go work with a plumber and replumb some water lines in the plant and provide a few spigots to our friendly neighborhood gardener, Anne.
