The buzz about biofuel: a look at the future of this homegrown fuel

(This post is part of an assignment for the class I am taking, Writing for Digital Media at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.This week, I am writing an article that includes excerpts from interviews I conducted. The audience of this article is intended to be my professor, classmates, and anyone with an interest in alternative fuels.)

By Marcie Barnes

Many of you may have heard of biodiesel, which is gaining popularity across the country as an alternative to regular "virgin" diesel. Biodiesel is made (or converted) from vegetable (or animal) oil and typically can be used (usually blended with regular diesel) in any engine that uses diesel fuel without modification, as well as in oil furnaces. Therefore, people with diesel engines or oil furnaces already have the "technology" in place to begin using biodiesel.

Both (deleted "Even") Presidential candidates seem to agree that we need to turn towards more renewable energy in America and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Biofuels are one of the readily (deleted: "-") available solutions that those with diesel engines can (deleted: "turn to") try.

Lyle Estill, "V.P. of Stuff" (deleted: "of") for Piedmont Biofuels, said (deleted "told me") in an interview that he began making biodiesel for personal use (moved) in his backyard in 2002, at the rate of about 55 gallons per month. Now, he is producing approximately one hundred thousand gallons of the "stuff" each month from his Pittsboro, N.C. operation, and selling it to private citizens as well as other businesses.

He also told me that his customers are not just using it to power their cars. "Some make bug spray,” he said. “Some make asphalt cleaners, some make furniture polish. Some use it for boiler fuel. Some use for home heating." (rearranged)

Interesting stuff. (deleted: "I couldn't really find any") Information on (deleted: "the") biodiesel bug spray or furniture polish was not found (deleted "anywhere"). But (deleted: "I do think it's helpful for") information for people, typically in colder climates who have oil furnaces, (deleted: "to realize that") abounds. A biodiesel blend is a perfectly acceptable alternative fuel for them. In western North Carolina, blueridgebiofuels.com is a good place to start to find suppliers in your area. There's also a good explanation of how it works on practicalenvironmentalist.com.

The NC Solar Center at NC State University, (deleted: "which") "serves as a clearinghouse for solar and other renewable energy programs, information, research, technical assistance, and training for the citizens of North Carolina and beyond," according to (deleted: "their") its web site. It launched a campaign last year specifically designed to increase awareness about heating your home with biofuels, called "Bioheat® is Better."

Anne Tazewell, the Center's transportation program manager, supplied (deleted: "me with") an overview of the project which told of its success: "Overall the project raised awareness about this product to heating oil distributors and customers resulting in more use of biodiesel and an expanded market for soybeans," it said.

A Biodiesel Bus Wrap project slated for this year (deleted:",") unfortunately did not receive funding, she (deleted: "told me") said in an interview. Most of the funding comes from outside sources – "mainly state grants, but sometimes federal grants" - according to another Center employee.

I also spoke to a regular consumer of biodiesel, Tim Morton, who is a Landscaping Manager at SAS* in Cary, NC. SAS is a software company that, in addition to developing software to help other companies achieve sustainability, also is a steward for being a responsible, green company.

Tim (deleted: "tells me") said he is paying about $4.50 per gallon for the biodiesel he is getting from a local supplier. "We have just started using some small amounts of biodiesel in some of our SAS Landscaping equipment. We are mixing in 5-10% biodiesel with regular diesel fuel," he said. Reducing usage of virgin diesel fuel and recycling used waste cooking oil products are the benefits he reports.

(deleted: I was also happy to hear") Also of interest is the fact that all of the used cooking oil from this year's NC State Fair (deleted: "would be") was converted to biodiesel. The foods that are prepared in this way are typically not the best for your health, so it's refreshing (deleted: "puts a smile on my face") to know that, at least, the oil is not going to waste, although a lot undoubtedly went on people's waists.

Overall, the future looks bright for biofuels as more and more consumers look for alternatives to foreign oil, especially in vehicles. One readily available vehicle worthy of note is the Jetta TDI Clean Diesel. What is clean diesel, you ask? Check it out. These vehicles are getting excellent gas mileage (better than hybrids, and they are better than hybrid for other reasons, according to this popularmechanics.com article) and produce radically cleaner emissions at the same time, unlike your father's diesel engine that spewed dirtiness on the car and into the air.

Time to start putting our minds and dollars towards these local, environmentally-friendly fuels and buying into technology that supports them. Once again, if you have a diesel engine or oil furnace, you already have the technology.


More assignment stuff:

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Questions posed to: Anne Tazewell, Transportation Program Manager, NC Solar Center/NC State University:

1. I see that last year you had a campaign called “Bioheat® is Better” and that you planned to follow that up by measuring the effectiveness of the campaign – are those results available somewhere or can you share them with me?
2. Are there any new projects to promote biodiesel in the future lined up?
3. How is this year’s program, Biodiesel Bus Wrap, going?
4. Anything else you can add about these awareness programs and the public’s response to biodiesels is much appreciated.

Question posed to: Chelsea Conover, NC Solar Center/NC State University:

Does your funding come solely from the University, or are there other sources from which you seek funding?

Questions posed to: Lyle Estill, "V.P. of Stuff" of Piedmont Biofuels:

1. Can you tell me how long you have been in the biofuels business and what kind of growth you have seen over time?
2. Do any of your customers (that you know of) use biodiesel for applications other than fueling vehicles (bioheat)?
3. Where do you see the future of biodiesel going, esp. in light of other renewable energy sources such as ethanol, solar, etc.?

Questions posed to Tim Morton, biofuel consumer at SAS in Cary, NC:

1. How much are you paying for biodiesel?
2. Where you are getting it from?
3. Aside from the obvious “going green” –are there other advantages to using it?


How I would further webbify the article:

1. Add a YouTube video on how to make biodiesel.

2. Go on a tour of the facility in Pittsboro and expand with a photo album with captions about what they do there.

3. Include a Google map of gas stations that sell biodiesel.



How I fact-checked:

Most of this is evident in the hyperlinks I added. There is a ton of information out there about this subject matter, so I tried to read three or four sites to get a perspective and linked to one that I thought was most useful. Another example is where I linked to the press release from the NC State Fair about cooking oil. I also linked to the Bioheat® is Better because it was a little confusing to me why the term was registered. Turns out the National Biodiesel Board (NBB) and National Oilheat Research Alliance (NORA) have recently trademarked the term, and launched the official logo for this product. Didn't feel a need to talk about it in the article, but dig a little deeper to find out about it.

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* Marcie is an employee of SAS.
Photo courtesy of robseattle on flickr.

This Week's Assignment

(This post is part of an assignment for the class I am taking, Writing for Digital Media at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This week, I will embed a Google map, open a Twitter account, and edit a Wikipedia entry.) 

Below is the map I created in Google. I've actually done something like this before when planning a road trip, but never embedded one in a web site before. The hardest part was figuring out where the html code was to copy.

Wireless Hotspots in Chapel Hill, NC



View Larger Map to see hotspots

My Twitter

To the right (top of page) you will see my new Twitter feed. I found the html code to do this at WikiAnswers. 

My Wikipedia Edit

The wikipedia entry I edited is presented (in part) below. My edits are in bold purple and large font size (when needed):

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The Bradley Method of natural childbirth (also known as "husband-coached childbirth") is a method of natural childbirth created by Dr. Robert A. Bradley (1917–1998) and popularized by his book Husband-Coached Childbirth. Teachers of the Bradley Method believe that - with adequate preparation, education and help from a loving, supportive coach - most women can give birth naturally,without drugs or surgery. The Bradley Method emphasizes measures that can be taken to help keep women healthy and low-risk in order to avoid complications that may lead to medical intervention.

The primary goal of the Bradley Method is healthy mothers and healthy babies. The method holds that, in most circumstances, a natural  (drug-free) (<--moved) childbirth is the best way to achieve that goal. Over 86% of Bradley moms having vaginal births do so without drugs. The classes teach nutrition, relaxation and natural breathing as pain management techniques along with active participation of the husband as coach. Parents-to-be are taught to be knowledgeable consumers of birth services and to take responsibility in making informed decisions regarding procedures, attendants and the birth place.

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Assignment Reflection

(This post is part of an assignment for the class I am taking, Writing for Digital Media at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This week, I liveblogged an event, and here are my thoughts afterwards.) 

By Marcie Barnes

I think I took this assignment a little too lightly at first. I did try to get it done relatively early, which is a good thing, because I had some major difficulties getting the first events I tried to cover to pan out. First, I tried to cover the Oktoberfest Celebration at Sugar Mountain on October 11. Trying to liveblog anything while on vacation with an impatient husband and three year old…is a bad idea.

Despite my best efforts, we arrived there just as the children’s activities were wrapping up and the band had already stopped playing. Not much to talk about at that point, and I could detect no wireless signal.

So, I decided to choose something at the upcoming NC State Fair. Smithfield the Painting Pig was performing every day at 1pm, which would make it easy for me to shoot over on my lunch hour, since the fairgrounds are literally only a couple miles from where I work. Even though I arrived with time to spare, I had a very hard time finding Smithfield. I had read somewhere that he would be outside the Exposition Center, where I had seen him perform last year. Turns out he was inside, and I didn’t find that out until after his performance had begun and the crowd was so thick there was no way to get a good view.

I also had no luck finding a good signal, although I read that some of my other classmates had no trouble at the fairgrounds. Maybe it depends on where you are, exactly? So, on to find another event, and now I am getting uncomfortably close to a time crunch.

So, third time’s a charm right? Yup, worked for me, as long as I found an event, cleared my schedule on a Saturday, and arrived with plenty of time. I still was unable to connect for a true liveblog, but the experience from my perspective was very similar, I think, minus the hitting the ‘publish’ button after every thought. I actually didn’t mind having my laptop with me; I didn’t feel particularly stared at, either. Perhaps more so at Sugar Mountain than anywhere else.

I actually felt a little weirder taking pictures at the brewery, I guess, because it was so crowded. I thought someone might say “hey is that going to end up on your MySpace page!” or something at any minute. I tried to get shots when people’s faces or backs were turned, for the most part. The only person at the brewery who asked me what I was doing was one of the partners. When I told him I was writing an article for a class, he just said “make it good.”

I also had to resort to quite a bit of handwriting, which I compiled that night along with my pictures and links. For the most part, it’s very hard to type on a laptop in a very crowded room with virtually no table space and hold a beer at the same time. Product sampling was paramount to the experience of this event, after all.

Overall, I had a good experience. Although I consider myself to be someone who always allows for plenty of time, this really taught me a lesson about allowing way more time than needed in a situation like this. Also, scouting out a venue in advance, when possible, would be recommended.

LiveBlog: Carolina Brewing Company Tour

(This post is part of an assignment for the class I am taking, Writing for Digital Media at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This week, I liveblogged an event. I chose to cover the brewery tour at Carolina Brewing Company in Holly Springs, which occurs every Saturday at 1pm.)

By Marcie Barnes

12:44 - I'm in the parking lot, have seen at least a dozen people enter already, and I was afraid there wouldn't be much of a crowd on State Fair weekend. The facade is quite unassuming.

12:47 - An announcement in the lobby - beer samples before the tour, and I need to have my ID ready.

12:51 - Waiting in a long line for beer, some happy jazz/swing music is playing overhead. Sign near serving area reads: Now On Tap: Pale Ale, Nut Brown Ale, India Pale Ale, Summer Wheat, and NEW Oktoberfest. I think I'll try Oktoberfest, it only seems fitting.

12:59 - I've counted (roughly) 75 people in this room, the entire operation consists of a front lobby area and a large warehouse-type space behind it. There are more people still coming in. Guess free beer is popular! The Oktoberfest is yummy. I must admit I have never been a fan of their main brand, Pale Ale, because it is too bitter for me. Oktoberfest is just right. It's a very refreshing medium-colored amber, and there seems to be a hint of orange which is nice. (Note: their website says nothing about orange, maybe I was imagining that!) Now, a jazzy rendition of Bridge Over Troubled Water is flowing from the speakers above.

1:07 - Tour still not started, people still pouring in and waiting in a long line for beer. Many are going back in the line for seconds (or thirds, or fourths).

1:19 - Taps are off. Music is off. John, who is one of the three partners, starts the tour. They have only one employee, and do all the work themselves up to the point of distribution. The brewery is 13 years old. The Pale Ale was their first beer, and it is brewed year-round along with the Nut Brown and India Pale Ale. They have a winter porter coming out in November, and there are many other seasonal beers. They have a six-county distribution area.

1:28 - John is passing around barley and hops for us to see/smell. He explains how each affects the bitterness (hops), darkness (roast of the barley), sweetness (barley), etc. The Oktoberfest brew has the highest alcohol content at 5.7% which is related to the fact that it uses more barley, which produces more sugar for the yeast to convert to alcohol (and carbon dioxide).

1:31 - The barley sample comes my way. It has a nice, fresh, sweet smell. The hops sample was neither nice nor sweet smelling. The girl in front of me recoiled at the smell. I can only describe it as something unpleasantly pungent, to be nice. Now I know why I don't like a lot of hops in my beer, besides the fact that I don't like bitter.

1:33 - A comment from the audience is about rice and corn being used in beermaking. John describes how the big national breweries use these ingredients to make a light, cheap beer. Their brewery uses only (Holly Springs tap) water, barley, hops, and yeast. They use a different kind of yeast for the ales as they do for the lagers.

1:35 - He tells how they got started. Three friends were homebrewing for a long time and one of them eventually took an apprenticeship at a brewery to "learn the ropes". They moved to NC specifically to open the brewery after looking at demographics and noticing a deficiency in local breweries in the area. Someone asks him what beers he likes besides his own and he says: Sierra Nevada, Anchor Steam, and Highland (out of Asheville).

1:37 - He gets into the specifics of the recipe: grain is cracked, mixed with warm water, and steeped, which makes mash. Liquid is drawn out, leftover grain is given to a local farmer to feed his cattle. Liquid is boiled for 90 minutes, hops are added. Liquid is cooled rapidly and pumped to fermentation tanks. Whole process takes six hours. The two large tanks hold 2500 gallons of beer when full. Yeast added here in the big tanks. When it runs out of sugar to convert, it goes dormant, and they reclaim it and reuse it again.

1:42 - Once beer is done here, it is filtered through a system and sent to last holding tank, where it ages for three (ale) to six (lager) weeks. Another tourist asks about dry hopping. He says they only do that sometimes, like with a recent Thanksgiving lager. I don't have a clue what dry hopping is.

1:44 - He says they do not use any preservatives and do not pasteurize their bottles. I am happy to hear that. I thought there was some sort of government-imposed law about that with commercial bottling, but apparently not. It does shorten the shelf life compared to other beers, but beer is not meant to sit on the shelf like, perhaps, wine. Pasteurization and preservatives would compromise some of the healthy benefits of beer.

1:45 - We move closer to the bottling/kegging area. He's explaining the bottling process. Would be cool to see the machine running, but I imagine that would be logistically difficult. Machine bottles 100 bottles per minute, they only run it a couple days a week.

1:48 - He says he's wrapping up, turning taps back on. Says he'll leave them on maybe until 3:30 if we are "good".

1:56 - I finally make it back to the taps. Ask John if I can stay here and have a small sample of each, he says sure. The Summer Wheat doesn't really remind me of wheat, but I can definitely taste the hops. It's much more bitter than the Oktoberfest. I love the back of John's shirt: "All it takes is a liver and a dream".

2:02 - India Pale sample - Their website says it's the most highly hopped, and I can tell. It's so bitter it tastes metallic to me. Very crisp, though. The "bar" is situated at the end of a giant room-sized walk in cooler. The taps are literally drilled into the side of the cooler. Tourists are jovial and polite in the requests for their favorite flavor of free brew.

2:12 - Pale Ale sample - Doesn't smell as hopsy. I can actually taste more yeast in this one, which I like. Still too bitter for me, but I know a lot of people like it that way!

2:20 - Stout sample - this was dubbed "hidden stout" because there was no tap handle and the "bartender" didn't know it was there at first. This was a good one to end with because it smelled like Kahlua! I don't see anything about it on their website, and I wonder if this is the Winter brew that is coming out soon? Anyway, it's definitely heavy, but tasty. Has a sweet syrupy taste combined with the expected bitter hop flavor.

2:28 - Asked if this was a large group for them, and got the answer that no, it's a small group. He estimated about 100 people today, and says he's seen up to 300 come in! Wow.

Later Notes: Due to the popularity of this event, I recommend arriving early and getting a place at the front of the line. And bring a designated driver, too. This is a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon, learning about the brewing process and sampling some great, fresh, local beer. And it's a great way to support your local economy as well. There are also health benefits to beer not widely discussed in mainstream media the way those of wine have been (although I disagree with the part in the above linked article that says mainstream beer is as good as a microbrew, due to the fact that they -- mainstream -- use cheaper, lighter grains like rice and corn, so "equally high-quality ingredients" doesn't ring true.)

Sample Restaurant Review

(This post is part of an assignment for the class I am taking, Writing for Digital Media at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This week, I will be writing a sample restaurant review for crowdrestaurantreviews.com, which will include instructions for other reviewers, in red.)

T.G.I.Friday's* - 1100 TIMBER DRIVE E GARNER NC 27529* - (919) 779-1935* [star rating] 

[Restaurant name, address, and phone number are required, and will comprise the headline, along with your star rating. You may enter an optional sub-headline:]

New Friday's in Garner Proves Reliable 

[Please provide a little about yourself, to provide context for your readers. The introductory paragraph is a good place to do this.] Friday's is always a safe choice in our family, because of the large and varied menu. However, after my recent choice to stop eating chicken and turkey in addition to red meat (I've never been a red meat eater (deleted:"since childhood")), it was a bit more challenging to find something good to eat on this visit.

[(Deleted: "Tell about") Describe the menu, what you had to eat, and get others' opinions. (deleted: "at your table, if possible.")]I was disappointed in the salad menu, which was not nearly as large and varied as the rest of the menu. There were only four choices, and they all featured chicken. So, I decided to order the Ahi Tuna Ciabatta Sliders; this from the menu: "Ahi tuna, lettuce, tomatoes, green onions and Anaheim chile sauce on ciabatta. It won Food Network's Ultimate Recipe Showdown. Can you name another burger that's a TV star? Didn't think so."

Well, if Food Network liked it, then I shall try it!

Did my entree look like the picture (taken from their website)? As usual, not exactly. The tuna was more hidden by the bread, rather than featured. But the height of the sliders was true. The taste was good, the chile sauce really made the dish. I was tempted to substitute good old mustard and ketchup for a true "burger" taste, but I tried the chile sauce and I'm glad I did.

Of course, most patrons of Friday's are not vegetarians. My husband, a proud meat eater, had the sirloin cooked medium with fries and a side salad with ranch. He reports that his steak was "tough and dry." He's normally a ribeye-with-baked-potato fan, and they don't have (deleted: "bakers") baked potatoes at Friday's, which is always a disappointment for him.

Our three-year-old had a hard time choosing between the typical, but also nicely varied, kid's menu. Finally he decided on "sketti"--to my delight--one of the vegetarian options for kids, which comes with a choice of sides to include salad. A small serving of veggies like broccoli would be a welcome choice as well, but kudos to Friday's for also offering carrots with ranch as a side: go raw veggies!

[Tell how the service was.]The service was great. My husband actually was annoyed that, at one point, he had two and a half full glasses of tea on the table. "Are they trying to drown me in tea?" he mused. But that's better, I suppose, than a single glass - half empty.

[Tell about parking and wait time (accessibility).] The parking and wait time were good. It was a newly-opened restaurant on a Sunday (Saturday may have been a different story). We had little trouble parking and there was no wait.

[Please visit the restroom and review that as well, as this can be representative of good management/cleanliness.]The restrooms, ugh. I have a feeling another little boy had been there before us, because there was urine on the floor and a lot of messy toilet paper as well. Please, restaurants, more bathroom checks! In addition, for some reason there was a lot of water on the floor near the drink station, and someone had simply plopped a caution sign on top of it. The mess was never cleaned up the whole time we were there. I had to steer our son the long way around it to get to the restroom.

[Please conclude with a summary of your experience and why you chose the star rating you did.]Overall, Friday's is a good choice for families (and others, too). I was absolutely not disappointed, and glad I chose the chile sauce Ahi sliders. My husband was not impressed with his steak, but he knows he needs to go to a good steakhouse to get a good steak, for the most part. So, good food, great service, needs work on cleanliness - I give it three and a half stars.

[The review itself needs to be at least 500 characters.]

[You will enter your star rating at the bottom of the post, with other optional items such as sanitation grade, photo(s), video(s), other image files, links, etc. ]