Biodiesel Quality Consultants
In 2002, AgriFuels LLC established operations in San Luis Obispo, California. Consulting with local petroleum distributors and environmental groups, the company commenced bringing quality methods of handling biodiesel into the marketplace in order to replace petroleum diesel for transportation and home heating fuel. In 2003 AgriFuels LLC trademarked the name internationally.
National Biodiesel Board Quality Consultants
Based on the expertise gained in the marketplace, in 2005 AgriFuels contracted with the National Biodiesel Board (NBB) to bring biodiesel education and outreach to various municipal and civic organizations and clean cities chapters.
In 2006 AgriFuels moved its headquarters to South Glastonbury, CT as changes in corporate responsibilities required the central office functions to be concentrated near key members. That year the NBB contracted with AgriFuels because of our strong industry knowledge, technical understanding of biodiesel, hands on experience addressing fuel quality issues, and experience in regulatory affairs. This project was a multi-phased task with of providing education and outreach to state fuel quality regulators by working with them through the National Conference on Weights and Measures (NCWM).
Phase I of the project was focused on assessing the regulatory “lay of the land”. This effort encompassed an analysis of what standards a fuel must meet in order to be sold in a particular state, which states have fuel quality enforcement authority, and documenting the state’s enforcement policy for biodiesel and blends.
Phase II focused on educating state fuel quality enforcement entities about the ASTM standard, developing appropriate methods to utilize for testing biodiesel and assisting states in their efforts to adopt D6751 as the fuel specification for biodiesel.
For Phase III AgriFuels has maintained the NBB website with the specific information on each state’s ASTM 6751 adoption and proactive testing progress. Education has continued by attending the NCWM national and regional conferences. The current status of each state can be found on the AgriFuels State Fuel Quality Index and on the NBB website (www.biodiesel.org).
BQ 9000 Producer, Marketer, & Lab Certification Consulting
During this period of working with the NCWM and member states and as biodiesel grew in usage, the issue of quality production and distribution of biodiesel became increasingly important to promoting quality biodiesel in the supply chain. In 2006, the National Biodiesel Accreditation Council established a quality management system certification process for these entities. AgriFuels understood the need to assist these producers and distributors in achieving and maintaining this quality management system and, in 2007, launched a web based system for this purpose. Our certification consulting continues today and is evolving into a more real time quality inspection process. Please see our BQ 9000 product description for more information and the NBAC website on the program itself at (www.bq-9000.com).
Biofuels Quality Trending Service
This evolution of understanding biodiesel quality requirements, determining which properties are the most critical to maintain health of the supply chain and communicating these to the state weights and measures regulators brought focus on key issues in the process. The cost of testing these properties is high and the ability to compare results for cause and corrective action transparency have been inhibitors. In 2009, to remedy the cost and transparency issues, AgriFuels contracted with the University of Connecticut’s Center for Environmental Sciences and Engineering (CESE) to provide low cost ASTM testing services. AgriFuels has established a Biofuels Quality Trending Service (BQTS) to capture the statistical data resulting from multiple certificates of analyses from weights & measures entities, producers and marketers and analyze trends in biodiesel quality in the national supply chain. Offering low cost testing will encourage more of it and sharing the resultant statistical data will encourage improvement in the quality of biodiesel nationwide. Please see our BQTS product description for more information.