Josh Tickell – Founder Josh Tickell’s research has taken him from the grease dumpsters of Florida and the farms of the Australian Outback to the Laboratories of the Department of Energy and the oil refineries of the Gulf Coast. Tickell has consulted and testified for companies and organizations such as the National Biodiesel Board, Clif Bar, Quicksilver and the Arizona State House of Representatives. His first book, From the Fryer to the Fuel Tank - The Complete Guide to Using Vegetable Oil as an Alternative Fuel, is a bestseller and has been instrumental in jumpstarting the biodiesel industry. A native of South Louisiana, Tickell has been extensively involved in hurricane disaster relief efforts. His work with biodiesel in Louisiana was selected by President Bill Clinton as part of the Global Initiative on Climate Change.

    The year was 1996. I was a college student on a semester abroad in Europe. The focus of my studies was agriculture and energy—the two cornerstones of our society. While working on a small organic farm in former East Germany, I saw something that changed my life. We were harvesting fields of yellow flowering plants and crushing their seeds to extract vegetable oil. The oil was taken to a large stainless steel machine owned cooperatively by the local farmers. Inside that machine, something incredible happened: the vegetable oil that we had pressed from the yellow rapeseed was transformed into a fuel that could run in any diesel engine. The farmers called this fuel biodiesel. To the farmers, the process was routine. To me, it represented a complete revolution in thinking. If we could simply “grow” our own fuel, then why was America so fixated on petroleum?

    I returned to college, where I studied chemistry and engineering. I learned to make biodiesel in the lab and, with the help of a few sympathetic engineers, designed a portable machine to make biodiesel from used cooking oil that I collected for free from fast food restaurants. I towed this “Green Grease Machine,” as it was affectionately called, behind a ten-year-old diesel-powered Winnebago, which my college friends and I had covered in brightly painted sunflowers. We dubbed the little motor home “The Veggie Van.” My month long post college tour in the van turned into a two-year cross-country journey.

The Veggie Van Voyage

    During what became known as the Veggie Van Voyage, I was interviewed on The Today Show, CNN, Dateline, and in over one hundred newspapers and magazines. I used the voyage as a means to meet with farmers, scientists, politicians, celebrities, and engineers in order to assess the potential for a viable national biodiesel industry.

    My adventure and research also prompted me to write my first book, From the Fryer to the Fuel Tank – The Complete Guide to Using Vegetable Oil as an Alternative Fuel. By then I had testified as a biodiesel expert in front of the Arizona Senate Committee on the Environment and I was speaking regularly at college campuses across the nation. The release of my first book coincided with an explosion in online enthusiasm for this “new” fuel. Chat groups, blogs, web sites, how-to sites, biodiesel products, conferences, and courses began springing up online. By 2005, there were more than 300 fleets across America using biodiesel (an increase of 100% in less than a decade). Since I began my journey with biodiesel, the fuel has gone from being virtually unknown in the U.S. to a buzzword used by presidential candidates, rock stars, and energy experts. But despite the boom of excitement around biodiesel, there remained no simple way to get involved in biodiesel. Which is why this web site was created.

Biodiesel America – a Unique Resource

    I wrote the book Biodiesel America and founded  BiodieselAmerica.org to give you critical tools – tools that are not available anywhere else. Reading the book opens you to a myriad of new possibilities for our energy future including, of course, biodiesel. Using the resources on this web site, you can buy a diesel car, get fuel, join a biodiesel co-op and even enter the business of biodiesel.

    My team and I have worked diligently to insure this web site serves you with a wealth of resources of information, products and opportunities around biodiesel. Our up to the minute news on biodiesel, oil, and alternative fuel gives you information on events around the globe – right as it happens. Our forums provide a place for you to discuss and debate topics such as farming biodiesel and peak oil. Our maps allow you to access biodiesel refueling stations, used diesel cars for sale, and biodiesel co-ops. Our web site link reviews give you insight into the top companies and organizations involved in biodiesel, alternative energy, and American energy independence. Our products bring you biodiesel expertise from the leaders of the biodiesel industry and are packaged in accessible formats like video, audio and eBooks. (Our products also carry a 100% money-back guarantee; because we are so confident in them we will refund your money if you are not completely satisfied).

A Message to the Growing Biodiesel Community

    At their core, both the book Biodiesel America and this web site reflect my ongoing commitment to provide you with the information, resources, and people necessary for you to benefit from the ever-changing world of energy. Not twenty-five years from now. Not even a decade from now. But right now.

I look forward to continuing to serve you with cutting edge biodiesel books, videos and information resources.


Sincerely yours,
Josh Tickell

Author, Biodiesel America: How to Achieve Energy Security, Free America from Middle-East Oil Dependence and Make Money Growing Fuel

Founder,  BiodieselAmerica.org