Henry County biodiesel station sees surge in sales

Previous WSLS stories:

Henry County biodiesel plant could soon help you save cash - April 1st

Entrepreneur looks to take idea from farm to Richmond - August 15th

An unassuming gas station in the small Virginia crossroads of Bassett Forks may hold the key to the future of energy security.

Dean Price of Red Birch Energy said this week his station, located on U.S. 220 near Collinsville, is now exclusively selling locally produced biodiesel fuel and sales have increased by 40 percent. Price noted that truck drivers have told him they are getting better mileage with his biodiesel than with the diesel fuel they usually buy.

Price said his operation is the first fully “closed loop” energy process, going from Piedmont farmland canola seeds to diesel fuel tanks in a matter of miles.

Price contracts with the Upper Piedmont Research Center at Chinqua Penn in Rockingham County, N.C., for canola seeds. He trucks the seeds a little more than 30 miles to his station, crushes them, sends them through a refinery process and sells the final product all in the same place. He and his partners are now producing 3,000 gallons per day.

For Price, this is just the beginning. Ultimately, he hopes to open franchises throughout Virginia and the Mid-Atlantic.

“Every county, every municipality should have a locally owned biorefinery if we want to become energy independent,” Price said.

Price isn’t alone in his vision.

He said a number of Virginia and North Carolina officials have visited his refinery and expressed interest in getting involved. At the federal level, Price said President-elect Barack Obama’s administration is likely to follow policy recommendations advocating his model.

For agrarian economic development, the concept is incredibly pragmatic.

“A lot of farmers are truckers and a lot of truckers are farmers,” Price said. “And it only makes sense for them to support this because this is our future. …If you give them the opportunity to support each other, they will.”

Part of the beauty of his whole operation, Price said, is that it’s all condensed. With the processor on the premise, the fuel doesn’t need to be trucked anywhere for sale.

In fact, he said in July, “90 cents of every dollar stays local with biofuels. The other 10 cents goes to the federal government.”