Lyle Estill is Co-Founder of Piedmont Biofuels in Pittsboro, NC. Lyle has been involved in all aspects of biodiesel production and market development since 2002. He has also been active in the business community for the past twenty years. As an entrepreneur he has founded a variety of companies and has been involved in a wide range of startup ventures. Estill immigrated to the United States in 1990 and founded EMJ America in Cary, North Carolina which has operations in his native Canada, the United States, Brazil, and Hungary, where Estill brushed with globalization and the international economy. Since then his vision of enterprise has become increasingly local, as he has been on a continual journey toward ever increasing sustainability. He is an accomplished author of several books, namely, "Biodiesel Power: the People, the Passion, and the Politics of the Next Renewable Fuel" and "Small is Possible: life in a local economy".
Piedmont Biofuels - http://biofuels.coop/
Notes:
Lyle spoke of the current leadership vacuum within the Biofuels arena. He spoke of the 1 million gallon facility and their Research and Development wing of his organization. They are proud of their designation as the smallest BQ certified producer of biodiesel in the world.
Lyle reviewed the history of liquid fuels – “ invented by big Soy for use in lean times.” The industry scales up and down as market forces dictate. He said that Agri-“business loves you in lean times and abandons you in good times.”
Piedmont Biofuels limiting factor is feedstock affordability….as a result they focus on the waste stream. The secret in North Carolina is to exploit the niches.
He mentioned that recent events in Indonesia have “blackened the eye of the Biodiesel industry.
Lyle announced the opening of their new biorefinery in early October
Key Quote:
“I believe that when it comes to successful biodiesel production it is a matter of scale. The next 100 million gallons will not come from a single producer. It will come from many processors who are located on feedstock anomalies. I say this as a guy who has spent his entire biodiesel life in a world of rising feedstock costs.”
Summary:
Thanks to Sarah Ashton, Rachel Cook, Lindsey Hannum, James Jeuck, Liwei Lin, James McCarter, Susan McIntyre, and Mark Megalos for providing notes and summaries for presentations.