4 minutes with… Peter Brown, Partner in FFA Fuels

Tell us about your company and it’s role in the Advanced Bioeconomy.

FFA fuels is a firm believer in renewable fuels, we are driving the price down to build biodiesel and methan production systems. In One project inCalifornia, which we are trying to develop startup funding, a 20 million gallon biodiesel facility estimatedat $87 million andoffer it now at $14 million, same output, same floor space better technology.

Tell us about your role and what you are focused on in the next 12 months.

I review and vet all incoming projects. My partner and I then allocate time and resourcesto ensure that the solution meets the requirement of the cient. We then set up a list of those solutions and shop around for the lowest price, the best financing and the quickest build. In financing we can offer 85% of the project at 2.5% for 18 years. For technology we have high FFA,low FFA, methanizers, crushers sites and ideas.

What do you feel are the most important milestones the industry must achieve in the next 5 years?  

It’s all PR at this point, if the world thinks that a Prius is an answer to pollution, global warming and the high cost of fule then we will never save the planet. We need bold, easy steps and the political to see them through to their implementation. California is a typical example of the Prius effect, partial feel goodanswers that change nothing.

If you could snap your fingers and change one thing about the Advanced Bioeconomy, what would you change? 

Education, why is it important, what are the solutions, what can we learn from overseas, how fast can it be installed,what will it cost compared to not doing anything. And do it now!

Of all the reasons that influenced you to join the Advanced Bioeconomy industry, what single reason stands out for you as still being compelling and important to you?  

There is not enough of it, the field is wide open and the predators are in that field snuffing out most of the efforts we have brought to produce biofuels.

What was your undergraduate major in college, and where did you attend? Why did you choose that school and that pathway?

B.A. German, Washington College, Chestertown, MD

Who do you consider your mentors – could be personal, business, or just people you have read about and admire. What have you learned from them?

No one goes through life untouched by the people around them, I have been lucky in living all over the world and working in a variety of places for some strange and interesting people.My favorie influencer was l’Art poetique, Bossuet, about as short a treatsie on how to live as you can get. I am lifelong pacifist in the old sense of the word, killing is not an option but I may have been one of the first CO in the US on non-religious grounds, so religion is not an option either.

What’s the biggest lesson you ever learned during a period of adversity?  

Be patient, until you die things can and will change, after you die it reslly makes no difference. To avoid dying concentrate on the immediate split second and living through it, do nothing to affect your survival, do everything to maintain your life.

What hobbies do you pursue, away from your work in the industry?

Restore vintage cars, gardening, bicycling, bothering my children.

What are 3 books you’d want to have with you, if you were stranded on a desert island

“How to get off a desert island and prosper” someone needs to write that sucker.

The face of battle and l’art poetique, I would appreciate the time to memorize it.

What books or articles are on your reading list right now, or you just completed and really enjoyed?  

The prosecution of George W Bush for Murder by Vincent Bugliosi. The grapes of wrath. For comicrelief, the Koran.

What’s your favorite city or place to visit, for a holiday?

Brussels, Belgium