Mark Edwards - Green Independence

Mark Edwards is a close friend of and a key strategic advisor to our Desert Biofuels Initiative effort. We're very pleased to be partnering with Mark to help him advance some components of his global "Green Independence" vision.

Mark is a professor in the Morrison School of Management and Agribusiness at ASU and the author of Biowar I -- which focuses on problems associated with corn ethanol, among other issues -- and Green Algae Strategy, which lays out a compelling vision for how algae can solve critical global fuel and food problems. We've found Mark's vision to be inspiring, and we're striving to implement aspects of his vision in an algae biofuels demonstration plant project we're exploring with Mark and a number of other team members.

Mark has generously agreed to allow us to post some documents he's authored that capture some of his thinking on Green Independence and related topics (all in .pdf):

• Green Algae Strategy Summary and FAQs
• Mark's Speaker Brief from a recent talk (addresses algae and summarizes Biowar I)
• Green Independence (version focuses on U.S. transportation fuel issues)
• Biowar I powerpoint slides

Mark has also made available reviewer copies of his full Green Algae Strategy manuscript that we can provide electronically upon request (to brad-at-desertbiofuels-dot-org).

Who's who post #11: Sam West

We are thrilled to announce that Sam West, currently in his final year of law school at ASU, will be joining the Desert Biofuels Initiative team during at least the Spring semester, working on a project to assess the federal, state and local legal and regulatory environment for biodiesel producers and distributors. Sam brings a wealth of experience and education to the table with him: he has a civil and environmental engineering degree, an MBA, energy-related experience as a Naval officer, restaurant industry engineering experience, and his legal background. Sam can be contacted at sam@desertbiofuels.org.

Sam comes to us via ASU's Technology Ventures Clinic. Our deep thanks to Eric Menkhus and team for their support.

Who's who post #10: Francine Hardaway

Francine Hardaway lives in Phoenix and is a board member of the American Biofuels Council, which describes its mission as "to conduct research, development, education and promote the accelerated use of sustainable biofuels and, to advise decision makers on how these goals are best accomplished." Francine is a principal at Stealthmode Partners, and is well-known and highly-regarded in the Phoenix-area business, technical and political communities. She has been a good friend to the Desert Biofuels Initiative. Francine writes an entertaining blog, online here.

Who's who post #9: Arizona Alternative Fuels Alliance

The Arizona Alternative Fuels Alliance is a 501(c)(3) with a mission of educating the public on alternative fuels, accepting and distributing charity to like-minded organizations, and to support legislation that is favorable to alternative fuels. To date, their efforts have largely focused on creating the infrastructure that will support their mission (corporate entity formation, etc.) and on compiling a useful set of online resources, including various alternative fuel locator tools. Key principals with AzAFA are James Towner (left) and Drew Bierlien (right) [I'm beginning to make an effort to collect photos of our "who's who" entrants.]

Who's who post #8: Arizona Biodiesel

While individual producers and co-ops play a role in the "local biofuels" vision, to have a significant environmental and economic impact local commercial producers are absolutely critical. Dan Rees and the team at Arizona Biodiesel (formerly known as Arizona Performance Biodiesel) are leading the charge on the commercial side. They have a sophisticated operation in Chandler that is on the cusp of producing saleable fuel, and have a goal of shipping a million gallons of WVO-derived biodiesel this year. As pioneers in this space they've worked through difficult regulatory, technical and business challenges, and we're hopeful that they can get over some final hurdles and get fuel shipping this month (it remains unclear whether they or Amereco will be the first commercial biodiesel producer in the Valley to ship fuel).

Also, AZ Biodiesel is supporting an initiative called Arizona Green Dining that, among other things, showcases restaurants that are dedicating their WVO for conversion to biodiesel and encourages consumers to support those restaurants. Please check out the Arizona Green Dining website, let others know about it, and support restuarants that are supporting the local biofuels vision in the Valley.

Who's who post #7: Colleen Crowninshield

In this series of who's who posts we plan to focus on people active in biofuels in the Valley region, but one Tucson-based person is such a standout statewide leader that we'll depart from the Valley-specific focus for a moment. As a quick Google search can demonstrate, Colleen Crowninshield of the Pima Association of Governments has been tireless in promoting biofuels throughout the state. In 2005 the DoE gave her an award and described her as "a persistent advocate of alternative fuels and alternative fuel vehicles." The Arizona Republic described her as the "state's clearinghouse on all things ethanol and most things biodiesel." She serves as a member of the Arizona Biodiesel Board and has been deeply involved in the development of biodiesel and ethanol fueling stations in Tucson. She chairs the very active and successful Tucson Clean Cities Coalition.

Who's who post #6: William Sheaffer

Bill Sheaffer may have the deepest experience of anyone in the Valley in connection with commercial biodiesel and associated policy issues. Bill was a VP with Southern States Power Co., which sold biodiesel to customers that included the Deer Valley School District before ceasing operations in 2004. He was involved with a company called Buckeye Biofuels, and now is Executive VP at Amereco, a West Valley-based biodiesel producer that now plans to begin shipping fuel at the end of January. Bill also has served as the executive director of the Valley of the Sun Clean Cities Coalition. The VSCCC website apparently hasn't been updated in several years but Bill reports that the VSCCC is "very much alive" and has a major event planned in late February (we'll post details here when we have them).

Who's who post #5: Michael Sarin

Michael Sarin is a successful entrepreneur and engineer (ASU alum) who has been as been a renewable fuels consultant since 2004. Most recently Michael was involved with the 100% biodiesel race boat Earthrace, working as a member of the ground support crew, and as a sponsor during their 2007 world tour. He is currently consulting for two renewable energy companies in the Phoenix area, XL Renewables and Diversified Energy. He and his wife both drive diesel vehicles, one powered by biodiesel, and the other recently converted to run on WVO. Michael is active in local efforts to promote biodiesel.

[Our ongoing, still very incomplete series of "who's who" in Valley biofuels posts is linked here]

Who's who post #4: Ken Costello

Ken Costello leads a sustainability group at Mesa Community College and maintains a biodiesel page on small scale biodiesel production here. Ken and his brother Jerry have been teaching Community Ed classes on small-scale production; many of their previous students are making biodiesel for their vehicles. Jerry coordinated a Biodiesel Interest Group that has met in the East Valley.

Ken also teaches a chemistry class at Chandler-Gilbert Community College that addresses biodiesel and other environmental issues.

As Eric and I have been making the rounds, we've been thrilled with the level of interest various ASU entities have shown in biofuels. In many ways, however, the community colleges are even better positioned to have an immediate, practical impact on local biofuel development in the Valley. We're hopeful that MCC will expand its biofuel efforts and continue to be a leader among the Valley community colleges. Go Ken!

Who's who post #3: Dave Conz

At the risk of interrupting the flow of Eric's story, let me add another in the planned series of "who's who" posts.

Dave Conz is a professor at ASU, where he is core faculty in the Interdisciplinary Studies program and affiliated with the Center for Nanotechnology in Society and the Biodesign Institute. He's also a particularly experienced and sophisticated biodiesel homebrewer, and an expert on the history and sociology of the biodiesel homebrew movement. His Ph.D. dissertation “Citizen Technoscience: Amateur Networks in the International Grassroots Biodiesel Movement” provides a fascinating and very readable account of his personal biodiesel experience (in addition to deep sociological analysis). His short article "The Beautiful Smell of French Fries" (pdf) is a must-read as an introduction to biodiesel and some of the obstacles that must be overcome in order for biodiesel to thrive.

[Post edited by Brad 9/17/08 to remove link to outdated article. I'll also use the opportunity to report that DBI's relationship with Dave has deepened since our original post, and we're very pleased to count Dave among our key strategic advisors. We're still working on trying to convince him to guest blog and provide some of his always-trenchant insights about biofuels in this forum. :-)]

Who's who post #2: ASU Biodesign Institute

There are several different Arizona State University entities that have a connection to biofuels, and we'll identify others in future "who's who" posts. The Biodesign Institute has had a high profile in connection with some fascinating and well-funded research it is undertaking in connection with "specially optimized photosynthetic bacterium" biofuel feedstock, in partnership with British Petroleum and Science Foundation Arizona (press release here).

Who's who post #1: Dynamite Biofuels Co-op

Gene Leach and Jay Nance at Dynamite Biofuels Co-Op are leaders in the Phoenix-area biodiesel community. Dynamite is (as far as we know) the only biodiesel co-op in the Valley, and Gene and Jay have been active both locally and nationally in promoting biofuels. Gene writes:

Jay and I started trying to figure out how to make biodiesel about 3 years ago with a clear intention to grow our efforts into a functioning coop and eventually expand to include a commercial operation. We are both very busily self-employed and have done most everything with found objects in our spare time. We now have put so much time, effort and money into this that we can’t afford to quit! Not that we want to, though it seems everyday has a new challenge. At any rate, that’s my Reader’s Digest history of Dynamite Biofuels Coop.

[post edited 1/15]