Rachel Burton
Rachel Burton has dedicated her career to renewable energy, biobased innovation, and climate sustainability. She started as a diesel mechanic and alternative fuel educator, progressed to biofuels entrepreneur and is now a global technology innovator.
Burton has authored and administered multiple state and federal grants in addition to serving as Principal Investigator for three Small Business Innovation and Research (SBIR) awards, from the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Burton has also served as an Associate Editor for the Journal of American Oil Chemists Society contributing to the advancing science and technology of fats, oils, and oilseed proteins. She is the founder and patent holder of Faster BioProcess, a company that applies green chemistry to reduce waste and increase yields of various lipid processes.
In 2011, she received the Biodiesel Researcher of the Year Awards, then the 2012 SXSW i2i innovation award, and later the Triangle Business Journal’s Top 40 under 40 business leader award. Burton has more than fifteen years of experience in technology commercialization in agriculture and energy, research, process optimization, in addition to retail and wholesale fuel distribution.