We’ve been following our next guest’s company since its early years as a single location biofuel company in the Midlands of our state. They’ve grown significantly since then into one of the East Coast's largest biofuel operations. Our legislators have taken notice with the South Carolina House of Representatives honoring them recently for their leadership in renewable energy and environmental stewardship. Mike Switzer interviews Joe Renwick, founder and CEO of Green Energy Biofuel in Winnsboro, SC.
TRANSCRIPT:
Switzer: Hello and welcome to another edition of the South Carolina Business Review. This is Mike Switzer. We've been following our next guest's company since its early years as a single location biofuel company in the midlands of our state. They've grown significantly since then into one of the east coast's largest biofuel operations. Our legislators have taken notice with the South Carolina House of Representatives honoring them recently for their leadership in renewable energy and environmental stewardship. Joe Renwick is founder and CEO of Green Energy Biofuel. He joins us by phone now from the company's headquarters in Winnsboro, South Carolina. Joe, welcome back to the program.
Renwick: Hello, Mike. Thanks for having me back.
Switzer: Congratulations on this honor from the Statehouse.
Renwick: it was awesome. You know, Annie McDaniels, Fairfield County House member. Having her to the plant and doing a recognition of green energy biofuel was super cool. I didn't know that. Actually, now there's a Green Energy biofuel day, like officially in South Carolina.
Switzer: Wow.
Renwick: that was a neat little add on there. In addition to just having her come and present the resolution at plant.
Switzer: Well, congratulations on that again. And hey, I think I've just heard that, you were also recently honored somewhere else.
Renwick: Yeah. So SCBIZ business publication in South Carolina, does a ranking once a year, and I made the top 500 leaders in South Carolina. And I was really, really surprised. I didn't even know that was, that was a thing right off. And, so I was feeling pretty blessed.
Switzer: Yeah. Yeah, that's great news, too. So for our listeners who might have missed our earlier interviews, tell us about the. And what it is you guys do.
Renwick: The company has grown from just a little Winnsboro, a little engine that could collect and cooking oil and making, biodiesel fuel. We have now grown into the largest feedstock processor this side of the Mississippi. We process, fats, oils and grease and refine them to make biofuel feedstock. And what that means is we just clean up the waste oil that may be behind a restaurant or at some large food manufacturer. We refine that oil and then we sell it to companies like Chevron or Marathon or, you know, big oil companies that own renewable diesel production facilities and sustainable aviation fuel. We've got four locations now, so we still have the Winsboro operation. We, have one in Knoxville, Tennessee, one outside of Aiken in Warrenville in South Carolina. And then, we own Resoil Compost in Elgin, South Carolina, which is a food waste compost facility that we have.
Switzer: All right, so what are the current trends and issues in the biofuel industry.
Renwick: There's this war in Iran. It is causing some supply chain issues in the petroleum world, which then creates more demand for produced in America fuel. And so we are, you know, supplying refined oil into that space, into that market. So there's crazy demand for the oil that we have always, you know, been processing. And it's actually like us record high. It's never been higher.
Switzer: Okay, and so how are you dealing with this? Are you looking for more facilities to acquire, to expand our, bigger. Are bigger companies looking at you?
Renwick: So, yeah, interesting question. So we've, we've always had interest of other companies in investing in us, or even buying us completely. And you know, Beth and I have just, you know, we kind of got a good thing going. It's just, you know, we own it outright together. There's no investors, there's no, you know, it's just us. And so we've, we've kind of always stayed away from things like that. But, you know, we're getting so big that on a level that you would need to scale, I mean, that conversation does need to happen, you know, for us to go from a half a million gallons a month that we've done over and over and over to get to 2 million gallons of production a month, it would be hard for us to do it in house. And so, you know, I'm not sure. That's kind of a loaded question. You caught me off guard. But yeah, we've got a lot of interest, from a lot of different places in what we're doing and how we're doing it, because they're just sitting another company that does what we do.
Switzer: Well, Joe, congratulations again on these accolades and thank you so much for spending time with us today.
Renwick: Always good to talk to you, Mike.
Switzer: Joe Renwick, also known as Bio Joe, is founder and CEO of Green Energy Biofuel, and he joined us by phone from the company's headquarters in Winnsboro, South Carolina. We will have a link to the company posted at our webpage so you can learn more South Carolina Public Radio.org where you can hear this show again. Just look for our show and you can also find us wherever you find podcasts with the South Carolina Business Review. This is Mike Switzer.
The views expressed on the South Carolina Business Review do not necessarily reflect those of South Carolina Public Radio.
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