Pittsboro, NC - Piedmont Biofuels founder Rachel Burton was awarded the 2011 “Biodiesel Researcher of the Year”
The annual award is focused on the technical advancement of biodiesel and has traditionally gone to scientists at federal laboratories or universities. Burton’s work in enzymatic catalysis stands to open the biodiesel industry up to a large variety of new feedstocks that have not previously been considered useable for fuel production. Burton has also advanced the National Biodiesel Board’s diesel technicians training program with its recent ASE (Automotive Service Excellence) accreditation.
Burton has been producing biodiesel since 2002. At Piedmont Biofuels she took the lead on fuel quality and analytics, and guided Piedmont into its BQ9000 quality accreditation. She also founded the research endeavors at Piedmont, which lead to the development of the enzymatic catalysis process.
Burton has delivered technical papers and lectures on sustainable biodiesel production, on enzyme catalysis in biodiesel, and on other scientific breakthroughs in the fats and oils industry. Her presentations have been well received in Canada, the United States, and Europe. Burton will be presenting at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s 24th Industry Growth Forum on Wednesday, November 9th in Denver, Colorado to commercialize Piedmont’s enzyme biofuel process.
Piedmont Biofuels has emerged as America’s premiere community scale biodiesel producer. It produces fuel from locally collected cooking oil, it designs and builds small-scale biodiesel plants, and it performs research on methods of improving the production process and enhancing sustainability.
