CCCC selected to offer biofuels degree program
Posted: 10-26-2007 : PITTSBORO, N.C.

PITTSBORO – In North Carolina biofuels education has a simple formula: CCCC.

That stands for Central Carolina Community College, a state leader in training workers for the burgeoning biofuels industry. At its September 2007 meeting, the North Carolina Community College System’s Board of Trustees acknowledged this leadership by granting the college the distinction of becoming the first in the state to offer a biofuels associate degree program.

The two-year program, “Alternative Energy Technology: Biofuels,” and related certificate programs will provide the biofuels industry with workforce development and training. The degree program starts in fall 2008.

The N.C. Strategic Plan for Biofuels Leadership has identified workforce development as a key factor in growing the industry. To accomplish this, the college has worked closely with industry and will work closely with the newly formed North Carolina Biofuels Center to determine workforce-training needs, according to Andrew McMahan, CCCC biofuels coordinator.

New courses have been created for the Alternative Energy Technology: Biofuels degree curriculum, including biofuels analytics, biofuels waste management, and renewable energy technology. As part of the interdisciplinary approach, students will also take courses in chemistry, electrical control systems, welding, bioprocessing practices, and small business development.

“Biofuels degree graduates will qualify for numerous positions within the industry,” McMahan said. “Employment opportunities include, but are not limited to, plant technician, plant manager, lab technician, sales manager, process coordinator, or business owner.”

The college’s Chatham County Campus, in Pittsboro, has been offering biofuels classes since 2002. Rachel Burton, of Pittsboro, a graduate of both the college’s sustainable agriculture and automotive mechanics programs, combined her interests and proposed teaching a biofuels class.

The college approved. From that first class, biofuels education has grown each year with strong support from numerous state agencies and industry. Since 2004, the college has received more than $300,000 in grants to expand its biofuels curriculum.

Most recently, the Community College System’s BioNetwork awarded CCCC two grants totaling more than $140,000. These will help fund the expansion of biofuels courses for the degree program as well as non-curricular biofuels education for the public.

Biofuels will be housed in a new $3.8 million, 18,000-square-foot Sustainable Technologies Classroom and Lab Building on the Chatham Campus. Ground has been broken and the facility is scheduled for completion by fall 2009.

The new biofuels lab will facilitate the training of students in methods and on equipment used in both biodiesel and ethanol production, including a seed crusher, small-scale biodiesel reactor, and ethanol production facility.

The building itself will be “green,” built to the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) silver standards. Included in the design, by Cherry Huffman Associates, is the utilization of fuel production by-products for heat.

To learn more about CCCC’s biofuels degree program, contact McMahan at (919) 542-6495, ext. 214, or by email at amcmahan@cccc.edu, or visit the college’s website at www.cccc.edu/biofuels. More information about the statewide life science community college initiative, BioNetwork, can be found at www.ncbionetwork.org.