| We believe the greatest way to create positive change in a thriving capitalist economy is to demonstrate that corporate responsibility translates into corporate prosperity. BlackGold’s founders support biodiesel not for its own sake, but as a means to realize greater social and environmental goals. After all, biodiesel’s value proposition is its environmental and social superiority to fossil fuels, and therefore maximizing these attributes maximizes its value. By focusing on technologies that maximize the social and environmental good from biodiesel, BlackGold has been and will continue to be on the leading edge - poised not only to survive, but to thrive in an ever-changing marketplace. Some of the social and environmental benefits of BlackGold’s business model include: - Improved water quality: Diverting brown grease to fuel production will improve water quality by reducing the amount of grease in the sewers and local watershed. The EPA estimates that grease is a leading cause of over 50% of sewer overflows, which release untreated contaminants into the watershed and cause untold environmental damage.
- Decreased taxpayer burden: BlackGold’s biorefineries create revenue streams and avoid costs for wastewater agencies, decreasing the burden on tax payers and increasing the agency’s ability to serve its constituents.
- Improved air quality: Using biodiesel in place of petroleum diesel significantly reduces dangerous air pollutants. Biodiesel is the only alternative fuel to have successfully completed the health effects testing requirements of the Clean Air Act.
- Improved public health: Diesel particulate emissions endanger public health. For example, an EPA study estimated the cost of the health problems caused by diesel particulate matter in the Philadelphia area in 1999 to be over $1.4B. By reducing particulate matter in the air, biodiesel use reduces this massive financial and human toll.
- Reduced carbon footprint: Lifecycle assessments of soy-based biodiesel have shown a 78% carbon dioxide reduction. This carbon reduction may be even greater for biodiesel from brown grease since it is recycling a waste stream.
- Greater energy independence: Local fuel production reduces reliance on foreign oil.
- Economic development: Supporting local waste collection businesses and fuel production keeps dollars domestic and local, strengthening the economy.
- Green collar jobs: Each BlackGold biorefinery will directly or indirectly employ dozens of people throughout the supply chain, from grease collectors to biorefinery workers to fuel distributors.
- Increased resource efficiencies: BlackGold biorefineries are best located near urban centers, where the majority of grease is produced and energy demand is highest. Producing fuel for regional use from local resources eliminates the financial and environmental costs of transporting feedstock and fuel long distances.
- Greater energy balance: Life cycle assessments have shown that soy biodiesel’s energy balance – the amount of fossil fuel energy inputs compared to total energy outputs – to be 3.5, one of the highest of any liquid fuel. The energy balance for biodiesel from brown grease is likely significantly higher since it is recycling a waste stream.
- Sustainable biofuels industry: BlackGold’s innovative technology opens the door to commercialization of low-cost feedstocks like brown grease. Diversifying and increasing the biodiesel feedstock pool strengthens the biodiesel industry as a whole, increasing availability, reducing costs, and dampening price volatility.
- Decentralized, diversified energy sector: Small-scale, local fuel production from a network of relatively small production facilities is less susceptible to major disruption from a single catastrophic event; diversification in energy production and supply will provide insulation from price spikes and shortages.
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Cities spend millions of dollars trying to prevent grease from clogging sewer pipes.
Grease blockages result in sewer backups, spilling untreated contaminates into the environment.
A VW gets a fill up of BlackGold's B20 made from trap grease.
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