All of the authors whose writings are included in this publication have served as faculty at the widely recognized Biodiesel Workshop Series, held in cooperation with Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa. The five-day workshops take place several times annually. Materials from those workshops, which cover technology, analytical methods and business management for biodiesel producers, is included in this book.
Jon Van Gerpen
Jon Van Gerpen is head of the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering at the University of Idaho, Moscow. He was an initial developer and leader in establishing the Biodiesel Workshop Series. Van Gerpen previously was a professor of Mechanical Engineering at Iowa State. He has been conducting biodiesel-related research for 10 years, including investigations into biodiesel-fueled engine emissions, fuel composition effects, thermal and oxidative stability and contaminant effects. While at Iowa State, he oversaw the operation of a biodiesel pilot plant at the Iowa Energy Center’s Biomass Energy Conversion Center and directed research at the Internal Combustion Engines Laboratory in the university’s Department of Mechanical Engineering.
Rudy Pruszko
Rudy Pruszko is a chemical engineer and project manager with the Center for Industrial Research and Service (CIRAS), which is part of Iowa State University Extension. He has more than 25 years of manufacturing and management experience in a broad range of industries. His experience includes design, construction, start-up and operations of five chemical plants, including business planning, cost analysis, marketing research and project development from concept to commercialization. Pruszko has assisted several biodiesel plant start-ups with feasibility studies and business planning.
Davis Clements
Davis Clements is founder and president of Renewable Products Development Laboratories, Inc. (RPDL), Lincoln, Nebraska, a process development and licensing company founded in 1999. He has been involved in chemical process design and process development activities in industry and academia, and as a consultant since 1966. The current focus of RPDL is processes and products based on the utilization of animal fats, vegetable oils and waste cooking grease as a source of energy and industrial chemicals.
Gerhard Knothe
Gerhard Knothe has a Ph.D. in organic polymer chemistry and has worked at the National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Peoria, Illinois, since 1989. In his position as research chemist, he has been involved with developing industrial uses of vegetable oils. His contributions include research on pre-combustion reactions of fatty compounds as they occur in vegetable oils and boidiesel, combustion-improving additives, additives for improving cold-flow properties and analytical methods for biodiesel production and fuel quality assessment.
Brent Shanks
Brent Shanks is an associate professor of chemical engineering at Iowa State University, Ames, joining the faculty in 1999. Prior to that, he worked for Shell Chemical Company, Houston, Texas, for 11 years as a research engineer in the area of heterogeneous catalysis and as department manager of the chemical catalyst department. Shanks’ work includes leading training courses for process engineers and operators in manufacturing facilities. A current project involves the synthesis of novel, highly basic heterogeneous catalysts for the transesterification of triglycerides to biodiesel.