The Appropriate Community Technology Fair (ACT'79) was held in Washington, DC, and Dennis Vander Griend was among the exhibitors.

The Vander Griend brothers' combined talents and vision yielded impressive results. The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms issued them the first commercial fuel ethanol manufacturing permit for legal, small-scale fuel ethanol production for their two-column, 190-proof distillation equipment. Dennis and his professor took the still to Washington, DC, to demonstrate small-scale ethanol production at the nation's largest-ever gathering of community-based technology programs, the ACT'79 Fair. That year, the Interior and Related Agencies Appropriation Act gave nearly $1 billion to biomass-related projects, prompting an alcohol-blended fuel marketing campaign.