Biofuels Processing Technician

Biofuels Processing Technicians execute the process of converting organic materials like corn, cooking oil, soybeans, and sugarcane into biofuels that can power automobiles, charge electronics, and heat homes. Biofuels are energy sources like ethanol, biodiesel, vegetable oil, and methane.

While Mother Nature does most of the work when it comes to energy — for instance, she supplies the sun for solar, generates the ground heat for geothermal, and creates the plants and animals whose remains, over the course of many millennia, become fossil fuels like oil, gas, and coal — she needs a little bit of help when it comes to biofuels. That’s where Biofuels Processing Technicians come in.

Employed by energy companies — including oil companies, many of which are pursuing alternative energy initiatives — Biofuels Processing Technicians typically take care of the following daily tasks: calculating, measuring, loading, and mixing the ingredients used in biofuels production; inspecting and operating the processing equipment used to produce and extract biofuels and biofuel byproducts; and collecting and analyzing biofuel samples in order to assess and ensure their quality.

Basically, if you’re a Biofuels Processing Technician, you’re a lot like the employees on the front lines of a manufacturing plant, as it’s your job to police production and control quality. Because you’re making fuel instead of widgets, however, you’re not the average Factory Worker; instead, you’re a scientific Foot Soldier facilitating the future of fuel.