Due to biofuels’ importance to the U.S. energy portfolio and their potential to reduce dependence on foreign fuel sources while improving both the social and economic well-being of domestic rural communities and the overall quality of the environment, many of Tennessee's counties and farmers have a vested interest in acquiring more information pertaining to the production of energy crops which can be used in the creation of biodiesel. In an effort to further aid in the education of stakeholders in the production of bioenergy crops, Dr. de Koff and TSU partners Dr. Prabodh Illukpitiya, Dr. John Ricketts, Mr. Alvin Wade, and Mr. Christopher Robbins are currently preparing a new capacity building project utilizing a Mobile Biodiesel Pro-
duction Platform (MBPP) through a USDA-funding. To assist in achieving that goal, this TSU team built the MBPP and is in the process of creating five annual biodiesel production workshops that will increase farmer knowledge. While demonstrating the steps in the production process, these workshops will also focus heavily on the agronomic and economic sides of oilseed production and federal and state incentives that may be available for producers. For more information about this project, bioenergy crops, or the mobile biodiesel
processing unit, contact Dr. Jason de Koff at jdekoff@tnstate.edu or follow on Twitter @TSUBioenergy.
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