Jim Levine

Co-Founder and Chairman, North Star Biofuels LLC  

Before coming to the biodiesel industry, Jim Levine had a successful career in environmental engineering, including superfund clean up and real estate redevelopment of large military and industrial properties, working as an engineer, innovative business founder, and managing partner. He was working on a contract for the Navy and the Army on stabilizing radioactive materials from weapons, including dirty bombs, when his business partner Michael Doyle, an engineer and inventor with years of experience working for Neste Oil and other petroleum companies, approached him with an idea he believed would revolutionize the production of biodiesel. Jim wasn't sure how this would work but believed that if it did it would be an innovation that would produce an ultra-pure product and contribute to the advancement of the biodiesel industry.

In 2009, Jim and Mike co-founded R Power Biofuels. Jim managed the operation and provided the start-up funding after finding the process of securing financing "tough" due to skepticism about the new technology and the venture capital community having felt the sting of losing money in this field. The company's proprietary technology was developed in the lab and impressively scaled up to a commercial level at their pilot facility at the Port of Redwood City by 2011. The tours they offered were met with interest from major refiners, airlines, and a large meat company that immediately put R Power in touch with Agri Beef Co., a leader in the U.S. meat industry. Four months later, they started working together, and North Star Biofuels was formed as a joint venture between R Power and Agri Beef, with a plan to build a multi-feedstock, full-scale production facility in Watsonville using tallow and other feedstocks that would have a carbon intensity of 65 to 85 percent less than petroleum diesel.

Not surprisingly, Jim says that project completion was a lot of work, citing both the challenges of partnering with a company from such a different field and troubleshooting a range of predictable and not-so-predictable construction and other issues. North Star completed its 15 to 20 million gallon plant in Watsonville just this summer and is now operating at about half capacity.

According to Jim, some things are running very smoothly and some are proving very difficult. He says that their proprietary equipment has worked fine, but that they have spent the last three months doing difficult retrofitting involving redesigning and rebuilding some of the equipment designed by third parties that was defective. In general, he credits his work for the last 12 years as owner of the Bay Area's disposal site for dredging at the Port of Oakland and other ports, Montezuma Wetlands, as very helpful in providing important experience with certain start-up issues such as permitting, business relations, and government contracting. North Star, which is fully funded, did receive a grant for the Watsonville plant from the California Energy Commission but declined it after deciding that some of the rules, including the prevailing wage requirement, were onerous.

Explaining how they were able to make their small footprint facility operational with its batchless, fully continuous, and highly automated features, Jim says that they used quite a few trade secrets, and that, in fact, it was hard for them in the beginning and took years and years to replicate. The production process right now has about a 10-minute throughput time, unlike the more conventional 8 hours or longer. When the day tank is full, they test and certify that fuel and move it into the sale tank. So far, they have had to shut down for maintenance, but are steadily moving toward reliable and consistent operations with the goal of 24/7 production and ramping up to full capacity as soon as possible.

Jim says that once they demonstrated the capability to meet the stringent biodiesel specs of oil companies, who are blending B5 to comply with state and federal regulations, they received plenty of inquiries for demand. Right now, by selling to them they can keep things simple and move later to diversify and achieve some of their original goals, including on-site blending; customized fueling service with on- and off-site fleet card-lock facilities and fuel delivery services; selling biodiesel back to the feedstock companies for use in their equipment and distribution fleets; and possibly a second plant. They hope to also make inroads selling B20, which has a large industrial sector market.

"LCFS, which is an efficient mechanism for institutionalizing a preference for local, low carbon fuels, is both an opportunity and an obligation. North Star strongly supports LCFS, because we believe it's the best, demonstrated way to reduce the carbon footprint of transportation fuels today. It's also important that we work collaboratively with oil companies because we need each other to survive and to achieve a seamless, reliable, and efficient supply chain for these low carbon fuels," Jim says. He points out that the timing of his company's entry into biodiesel production was good because they are starting up as LCFS is kicking in, and his team is able to bring their history of good relationships with business groups and legislators to the task of strengthening the program.

When Jim is not meeting the demands of his full-time job in biodiesel, he serves on a number of boards, including the Bay Area Council, Northern California's leading business group, where he has been an Executive Committee Member and Water Committee Chair since being recruited in 2007. He believes it's important to stay informed about what's really going on around the state and to be involved in the synergistic efforts of the huge range of people working to improve our state's environment. When asked how he does it all -- including playing lead guitar in a rock band performing classic hits with his wife -- Jim says he is super focused, stays clear, and works efficiently because he believes it's important to diversify one's activities to stay inspired and fresh.  

While North Star's proprietary information is tightly held, the purity and quality of their fuel is not a secret, and our industry is happy to congratulate the team of this member company on their success. CBA looks forward to their official opening event next year in Watsonville and to continuing to work with Jim and his team on LCFS defense and other issues benefiting biodiesel in California.