Biodiesel for Co-operatives

Lyle Rudensey of Seattle Washington is one of the founding members of a local co-op in his community. He writes:

‘The Dirty hands Biodiesel Co-operative’ in Seattle WA. Started up in June 2007. We have 24 members. We got started after several discussion with a friend, Harry, about wanting to do a co-op (get out of my garage a bit), and I told him I thought a BioPro™ 190 would help facilitate the operation. I had also been to an advanced homebrew workshop where the inventor of the pHlip test, Randall Von Weddell, was there. One of the participants brought a sample of fuel made in his BioPro™. Randall tested it and said he’d never seen a homebrew sample test so well. That stayed in my mind, so when we were organizing the co-op, I thought a BioPro™ would be great…also, because it’s so easy to use and you use the same amount of ingredients every time, I thought it’d be easy to train others to share the brewmeister duties. Our other brainstorm was to ask the co-op members to share the responsibility of bringing in the oil, and build in a $1/gal incentive for doing so. (Our fuel cost for members is $3/gal if you have oil credits and $4/ gal if not….so, bringing in 10 gallons of oil entitles you to 10 gallons of finished biodiesel for $3/gal.) We were also fortunate to have a friend, Tom, donate the use of his shop in exchange for free fuel.”

Co-operatives can spring up anywhere and if you have access to vegetable or animal oil and run diesel equipment, sharing the responsibility of oil collection and the cost of the equipment can be a great strategy.

Contact Springboard Biodiesel for more information. (530) 894-1793.

• Alabama: none known
• Arizona:- Dynamite Biofuels Co-op Cave Creek, Arizona,
• Arkansas: none known
• California:
  1. Berkeley Biodiesel Collective in Berkeley, California
  2. Biofuel Oasis a women-owned, worker-owned biodiesel distribution coop
  3. Burnveggies - the main Northern California biodiesel discussion forum, ties together several different NorCal biodiesel groups

  4. CenCal Biofuels - No website, email at: cencalbiofuels@yahoo.com Merced, California

  5. LA Biofuels in Los Angeles, California

  6. Los Angeles Biodiesel Coop in Los Angeles, California

  7. Northern California biodiesel events listing -lists events put on by different NorCal biodiesel coops and educational groups

  8. Peninsula Biodiesel Cooperative in Palo Alto, California
  9. Promethean Biofuels in Temecula, California. Sells Biodiesel & Chemicals to the local community.
  10. Sacrament Biofuels Network A group of folks that work to bring Biodiesel to Sacramento.

  11. San Francisco Biofuels Cooperative in San Francisco, California
-
  12. Southern California Biodiesel Users Group in Southern California

  13. Southern California biodiesel discussion list- the biggest SoCal biodiesel community forum


• Colorado:
  1. Boulder Biodiesel in Boulder, Colorado

  2. Denver Biodiesel in Denver, Colorado

  3. Front Range Biofuels in Littleton, Colorado

  4. Roaring Fork Biodiesel Cooperative in Roaring Fork Valley, Colorado


• Connecticut
:
  1. Connecticut Alternative Fuel Vehicles Forum
  2. Connecticut Biodiesel Cooperative in Hartford, Connecticut
• 

Delaware: None



• District of Columbia
:
  1. Washington D.C. Biodiesel in Washington D.C.
• 

Florida:
  1. Brevard Biodiesel in Brevard County, Florida
  2. Suncoast Biofuels in Tampa Bay, Florida


• Georgia:
  1. Atlanta Biofuels forum in Atlanta, Georgia


• Hawaii

: none
• Idaho: none
• 

Illinois
:
  1. Prairie Crossing Biodiesel Coop- Grayslake, Illinois. Contact Kyle Capizzi[at]yahoo[dot]com for more info
• 

Indiana


• 

Iowa
:
  1. Yoderville Biodiesel Cooperative in Iowa City, Iowa



• 

Kansas

: none
• 

Kentucky

: none
• 

Louisiana

: none
• 

Maine:
  1. Downeast Biodiesel Coop in Ellsworth, Maine

Montana
- Park County Biofuels Cooperative in Livingston, MT


• 

Maryland
:
  1. Charm 21 Biodiesel Coop starting up in Baltimore, MD
• 



Massachusetts

: none
• 

Michigan
:
  1. Biodiesel Coop of Kalamazoo A student organization at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan


• 

Minnesota
:
  1. Twin Cities Biodiesel Cooperative in Minneapolis, Minnesota


• 

Mississippi:
  1. Biofuels including forum for Mississippi biodiesel discussion

530 894 1793.