Berea College students receive $30,000 grants from Kentucky’s New Energy Ventures program to develop their businesses

The new ventures are especially relevant in light of the important issues being raised at the energy summit in Copenhagen, including the need for “greener and cleaner” energy production.

Nathan Hall, of Floyd County, is an independent major in Sustainable Agriculture and Industrial Management at Berea, graduating this December.  His business is East Kentucky Biodiesel (EKB), LLC, formed officially in 2008.

EKB, LLC will be the region’s first producer of sustainable, environmentally-friendly biodiesel fuel.  Plans are to construct an initial 150,000 gallon per year WVO (waste vegetable oil)-based biodiesel plant in Floyd County that will source waste oil feedstock from the surrounding 150 mile radius.   Concurrently, research will begin to assess the viability of growing several different types of oilseed crops on reclaimed surface mine sites.  The end goal will be to produce between 500,000 and 1.5 million gallons of biodiesel per year from locally produced or collected feedstocks and to sell to mainly local and regional markets, with long term plans to implement this business model in other areas in the central Appalachian coalfields.

With his $30,000 KNEV grant, Hall says he will purchase tools and equipment for initial operations and commercialization, including a truck for collection and fuel delivery, as well as use it for future development.  Hall plans to begin construction of the plant after leaving Berea in December, when EKB becomes his full-time job.  He hopes to have the initial phase completed by March.

At present there are no biodiesel producers or distributors in the eastern Kentucky region.  Many restaurants and cafeterias are still paying to have their cooking oil hauled offsite by out of area renderers and there are thousands of idle acres of surface mined land that could be used to grow site-tolerant feedstock crops.  Hall’s enterprise has support from Floyd County officials are who are financing construction of the plant and leasing to him at very favorable terms.  Hall says officials are very excited about using biodiesel for their vehicles of various kinds and the county’s school buses.

“I have been intent on developing sustainable forms of economic development within the Appalachian coalfields for several years now,” says Hall.  “The six months I spent as an underground coal miner and a lifetime of witnessing poverty and environmental degradation motivated me to search out those answers which can be most viable in this region.  I plan to work on several different projects along these lines throughout my career but the biodiesel business is an excellent starting point since it is very doable on a small scale and I already have significant experience with these systems.”

Curtis Britland of Lyon Station, Pa., is founder and CEO of Critical Energy Corporation (CEC). He also is a Berea College senior majoring in computer information science with an emphasis in computer graphics who will graduate in May 2010.

CEC plans to commercialize two products in the next 2-3 years.  The first is a low cost tracking system that is designed to work in residential, commercial and utility scale photovoltaic systems.  The second is a high efficiency solar receiver unit that is designed for solar power tower CSP systems.  These products provide cost effective renewable energy solutions that give the individual ownership of their energy production.

Curtis will use his $30,000 grant to purchase domestic and international intellectual property rights.  The rest of the award will be used to prototype and test the solar tracking system components that he intends to commercialize late next fall.

“Now more than ever environmental issues are becoming a hot topic as our society recognized the effect of hydrocarbon based energy consumption on the environment,” says Britland.  “It is exciting to be involved in a venture that is based on doing social and environmental good while having the potential for high growth.”
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The KNEV program was established by Gov. Bashear in March 2008.  Managed by the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development, through the Department of Commercialization and Innovation (DCI), the program is administered by the Kentucky Science and Technology Corporation, a non-profit company.