Clean Energy Biofuels

We started Clean Energy Biofuels in 2008 with the ambition to provide a cleaner energy source to the state of Georgia while supporting the rural community in Walton County Georgia. In the ten years since Rick Huszagh and Crista Carrell founded the company, we have achieved both. Over the years we have been supported by the local community of Monroe, GA, USDA, EPA, University of Georgia (UGA), and many other people. These people have believed in our vision for cleaner air and a more renewable agriculturally based fuel source for trucks, cars, and electric power generation. Since we started the business, we have grown to support a significant local employee workforce, and we operate our fleet of vacuum and transportation trucks. Rick and Crista were recognized by the White House Champions of Change program for their work in farmland preservation and work towards sustainable and renewable energy.  Clean Energy Biofuels supports the Down to Earth Foundation which was created to focus on environmental education and foster a positive attitude toward solving the challenges with our current energy supply. The foundation’s mission is to create an experiential education curriculum through which students learn a creative and rewarding approach to solving the challenges faced by our world. Focusing on four areas – renewable energy, public health, ecology, and agriculture – Down to Earth Foundation’s programs demonstrate the connections among these areas and provide hands-on learning experiences for students of all ages.  The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) is a national program that specifies that a specific volume of renewable fuel supplements the petroleum fuel supply. The RFS program was created under the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct), which amended the Clean Air Act (CAA). The program aims to diversify the American energy supply and to support the agricultural sector. The RFS endorses the inclusion of renewable energy in this strategy along with traditional sources of energy such as petroleum transportation fuel, heating oil or jet fuel. Much like diversification is a good investment strategy for financial investments, energy independence in the United States is supported by a diversification strategy that includes renewable energy. Companies like Clean Energy Biofuels is an integral part of this strategy to make our energy sources more renewable and cleaner.

Clean Energy Biofuels is the only company in Georgia that offers both used cooking oil collection and biodiesel fuels sales. We collect used waste restaurant fryer cooking oil from hundreds of restaurants in the Atlanta area. We are eager to collect oil from your restaurant or food service facility. We also offer grease trap services and have serviced thousands of restaurants in the region. Below is a list of regions we service: Atlanta, Athens, Monroe, Lilburn, Stone Mountain, Lawrenceville,  We backhaul the used cooking oil to our biodiesel production facility in Monroe Georgia. At our facility, we perform the entire biodiesel production process; filtering, reaction, separation, transesterification, drying, and processing of the biodiesel according to ASTM D6751. Our biodiesel production process is electric powered by a 115 KW solar array, and the resulting fuel has 87% less carbon and 75% fewer emissions than diesel.

All of our biodiesel produced is used as a road fuel or to produce clean electric energy. None of our processed biodiesel goes towards food ingredients for livestock.  We have been producing biodiesel at this facility since 2008. Our biodiesel is sold throughout the region in Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina and Tennessee. Our clients include companies such as US Foods, Whole Foods Market, Georgia Power and many others. We are fully EPA compliant and have partnered with the USDA to facilitate our growth. Our production facility is located in rural Walton county on a 7.4-acre site that was formerly a junkyard. We cleaned up the place that now produces a cleaner fuel used for transportation.  Restaurants work with us because we buy waste oil and pay competitive rates. We collect used cooking oil from hundreds of restaurants in Atlanta including Chick-fil-A, Whole Foods Market, and the Ford Fry restaurant group. We collect all of the used cooking oil generated by University of Georgia (UGA) and Georgia State University (GSU).  Working with us is easy. We will bring you a new receptacle at no cost. Just pour the oil into the receptacle and we will come and collect the oil and mail you a check quarterly. We are reliable, customer focused, and we make it as easy as possible for you.

BENEFITS OF WORKING WITH US

• If you are running a busy restaurant the last thing on your mind is the collection of your used cooking oil.
• Have you ever wondered what happens to recycled cooking oil? Some companies sell it to be used to feed animals. Not us.
• The combustion of biodiesel as a transportation fuel generates less pollution and carbon.
• Privately held and based in Georgia since 2008, we are not listed on the stock market and not owned by private equity. We are not purely bottom-line driven. We run a business that supports the agricultural sector, our customers, and our employees.

BIODIESEL – SUSTAINABILITY IS AN EASY CHOICE

Biodiesel fuel is a liquid fuel that can be blended with traditional petroleum diesel fuel and can be used as:

• Transportation fuel for trucks and automobiles
• Fuel for trains
• Home heating fuel for homes and other buildings
• Fuel for power generators for electricity production

Biodiesel is sometimes also called Methyl Esters or Fatty Acid Methyl Esters (FAME). Biodiesel can be produced from used cooking oil collected from restaurants, or vegetable oil sources. Most often, Biodiesel is produced from soybean oil, but most any other feedstock can be used such as; waste vegetable oil (WVO), corn oil, canola oil, soybean oil, sunflower, rapeseed, algae, peanut, and many others. Many people may be surprised to learn that when Rudolf Diesel invented the diesel engine in the late 1890s, his early demonstrations of the new engine technology showed that he intended that vegetable oils would fuel it. During the 1900 Paris World Fair, he demonstrated his new engine using peanut oil as fuel. In fact, Diesel predicted that peanut oil would be widely used as a source of fuel as petroleum fuels. Diesel also liked the notion that his new engine could help the farmers and impoverished rural communities.  As a liquid hydrocarbon fuel, Biodiesel is often blended with traditional diesel fuel. 100% biodiesel is often referred to as B100 or neat biodiesel in its unblended form. 20% biodiesel 80% petroleum diesel is labeled B20, 5% biodiesel 95% petroleum diesel is labeled B5, and 2% biodiesel 98% petroleum diesel is labeled B2. Biodiesel performs best in warm temperatures and blended in lower concentrations in cold weather. Typically B2 diesel and B5 have comparable performance in cold weather with B2 optimally used in frigid temperatures below -20F for example.  Biodiesel sometimes referred to as a biofuel, is a renewable fuel that unlike petroleum-derived fuels, can be regenerated in the short timeframe of the photosynthesis cycle of growing a crop such as soybeans. By contrast, crude petroleum is formed as a result of geological forces over millions of years. Biodiesel fuel is used in North America, Europe, and Asia. Many nations have passed legislation adopting the use of biofuels blended into petroleum-derived fuels. For example, in the UK, the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) adopted guidelines to add 5% of biofuels to be added to all road vehicle fuel sources. In the USA, the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (Renewable Fuel Standard) began a trend of renewable fuel used in American vehicles.  Biodiesel is produced with a process called transesterification. The transesterification process involves taking raw vegetable oil and making it more suitable for use in combustion engines. Transesterification converts vegetable oil so that it attains the following attributes; lower viscosity, removal of glycerides, lower boiling point, lower flash point, and lower pour point. The first step in transesterification is adding a catalyst to the vegetable oil to create a reaction. Catalysts used are typically sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide. After the catalyst is added, alcohol (methanol or ethanol) is added later on to create a reaction that separates glycerin from what will ultimately become biodiesel. Glycerin is a valuable byproduct that is sold as an ingredient in soaps and other products.  Usually, this reaction will proceed slowly or sometimes not at all, so heat is often used to speed up the reaction. The finished product of biodiesel fuel production must be consistent to run in vehicles and for other applications properly. The American Society for Testing Materials (ASTM) has defined standard ASTM D6751 to govern the consistency of biodiesel to ensure it works correctly in all applications.  The benefit of Biodiesel is that it is a domestic renewable fuel source that can be produced cost-effectively. The use of biodiesel complements the use of petroleum fuel production and does not replace it. Use of biodiesel is a smart diversification strategy for our energy sources and hedges the risk of potential disruptions in the availability of other energy sources. Biodiesel is cleaner and better for the environment because it has lower emissions compared to petroleum diesel. Biodiesel is less toxic than table salt and does not smell the same as petroleum diesel. Biodiesel helps the agricultural sector and is most often domestically produced which assists rural economies.