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Gene Galin
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« on: March 17, 2009, 01:17:17 AM » |
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NC Biofuels Center Grant Award
FROM: Dianne Reid
Chatham County Economic Development Corporation
CONTACT: 919.542.8275
PITTSBORO, NC. The Chatham County Economic Development Corporation (CEDC) announced today that it has received a $197,000 grant to conduct enzymatic biodiesel production.
The grant will be administered by the CEDC, and the work will be delivered by Piedmont Biofuels Industrial, a local biodiesel producer, in partnership with Novozymes, a global leader in bio innovation and the world’s largest manufacturer of enzymes.
Reid was delighted with the award, saying, “The project will promote the development of green jobs in Chatham County and help further the county’s aim to be a leader in renewable energy technology.”
Chatham County is already a leader in biodiesel research. Piedmont biofuels was already building a second lab on its Pittsboro Campus to accommodate its current research and analytical workload.
The idea for this project originated in Seattle, where Piedmont’s Rachel Burton and Novozymes’ Per Munk Nielsen were delivering scientific papers at an American Oil Chemists Society meeting.
Burton is a founder of Piedmont Biofuels, and currently spearheads the Research and Analytics portion of Piedmont’s business. “I’m excited about working with Novozymes,” Burton said.
Piedmont’s Greg Austic oversaw the grant application and will be taking a leading role in delivering the work. “We hope to integrate this research into the biodiesel systems we currently market,” said Austic.
Novozymes is the leader in providing enzymes for fuel ethanol manufacturing, and has been steadily decreasing the cost per gallon of enzymatic production. Enzymatic production of biodiesel is not currently practiced.
Kurt Creamer, who is responsible for North American connectivity for Novozymes said of the award, “We’ve been watching Piedmont for some time, and we think they are well positioned to help us get enzymatic biodiesel processing out of the lab and into the marketplace.”
Piedmont’s expertise lies in the development of small scale biodiesel processing plants which will be required in the development and introduction phase of enzymatic biodiesel production.
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