Making Biodiesel in West Virginia

An article in the Sunday Gazette -Mail from Nov. 16 reports on 2 different - very different - organizations making biodiesel in West Virginia. AC&S is a corporation making biodiesel as a sideline to its other industrial activities, like cleaning railcars. It is supplying several school districts with biodiesel in the area. They have a reported capacity of 5 million gallons per year. This is the very sort of home-grown industry that the state should be doing everything it can to promote. It's great to see entrepreneurs doing well in the Kanawha Valley.

For his part, Zoe of the Zendiks (a local branch of a national art commune I knew nothing of until I read this article) has done the same sort of biodiesel manufacturing on a smaller scale. He learned everything the hard way, like thousands of basement tinkerers before him. He's evidently offering to share his knowledge with others, and will be offering classes. I went online to try to find out when the classes might be offered, and because I was curious about the organization, but I was blocked by the firm's computer security/porn blocking system. I don't know why, unless the art they produce registers as something too salacious for attorneys' eyes.

The Mid Atlantic Technology, Research and Innovation Center (MATRIC), a local think tank that is quietly doing tremendous things with less financial support than the coffee and doughnut budgets for Research Triangle organizations, is also working on a biofuel project, among many others. Check them out.