Eugene Weekly : Happening People : 1.09.03

Ian Hill, Tomas and Josh Endicott

After his pickup caught fire on the freeway in 2000, Ian Hill replaced it with a diesel VW van. Hill and his friend Tomas Endicott had escaped the "sprawl and consumerism" of Lexington, Ky., in '97 for continued education in Eugene. Early in '01 they fitted a 55 gallon drum with a water-heater element to brew clean- burning biodiesel fuel from used restaurant cooking oil. "The first batch was perfect," Endicott reports. See how it's done at www.eugeneweb.com/~bios, a website they launched with other biofuel enthusiasts. Eugene BioSource demos drew crowds on Earth Day and at the Oregon Country Fair, and hundreds of gallons were produced. Still, the process is messy, and homemade fuel can't be sold. And so, joined by Endicott's recently downsized brother Josh, the ex-Kentuckians researched commercial production. "A big outlay, and not enough demand," Endicott concludes. Instead, the trio founded SeQuential Biofuels and partnered with distributor Tyree Oil to import soy-based biodiesel from the Midwest. Last August, SeQuential opened a biodiesel card-lock pump at First and Blair. "It's one of less than 50 pumps nationwide," says Endicott. Learn more at www.SQBiofuels.com. — Paul Neevel