How To Make Biodiesel

Sep. 19–ECHO — Crushing canola seed to make fuel makes good business sense to Echo farmer Kent Madison. Prompted by high diesel costs and the low price of canola, he decided to stop sending his seed to Canada, where it was selling for about 8 cents a pound after shipping costs. Instead, he bought two crushing machines off the Internet, added a building next to the farm’s offices and started squeezing oil out of the tiny black seeds. Later this week, he hopes to start running at least part of his farm equipment using the homemade fuel. “Making biodiesel isn’t rocket science. It’s something a kid could do for a science project,” he said. Madison, who grows about 1,000 acres of canola, is offering to buy canola seed from his neighbors for 12 cents a pound. He isn’t the only one in the region looking at ways to make canola — which is used as a rotation crop with wheat — more profitable. Pendleton Grain Growers, which also has a canola crushing plant, started its operation to make the crop more profitable for the cooperative’s members, President Al Gosiak said. “We tried a number of crops, and the one that can work the best is canola. … The problem has been there hasn’t been a local market,” he said. Using the oil for biodiesel changes that. PGG started making canola oil about 10 months ago and selling it to SeQuential Pacific Biodiesel, which started a refinery in Salem in July 2005. Gosiak won’t say how much PGG produces but said the first load was 8,000 gallons. The cooperative’s focus was to develop a market for the local crop instead of having biodiesel producers looking at foreign imports like palm oil, he said. Like Madison, PGG is paying farmers about 12 cents per pound and also is looking for more suppliers. “The demand for the oil is about 5,000 times what the available crop is,” Gosiak said. He said he believed more farmers will start growing canola when they see it could sell for 12 to 15 cents a pound. It’s been more than a decade since farmers got such prices for canola seed, Madison said. Interest in biodiesel isn’t limited to Oregon. A new state law requires biodiesel to make up at least 2 percent of total diesel sales in the state by 2008. The 2 percent standard is creating a guaranteed market for canola oil, said John Stuhlmiller, assistant director for government relations for the Washington Farm Bureau. Canola is grown almost entirely east of the Cascade Mountains, and production is increasing because of the drive to grow it for biodiesel, Stuhlmiller said. There are about 50,000 acres of canola grown in Washington, he said. To meet the 2 percent standard, there needs to be about 200,000 acres. Madison expects to make about 360,000 gallons of canola oil each year. He plans to sell most to SeQuential Pacific Biodiesel and the remaining 100,000 gallons will fuel his farm. SeQuential Pacific Biodiesel is pleased with the product. “It’s going directly from the farm to our facility,” said Tyson Keever, managing partner for the company. He’s hopeful that as more farmers have success selling the crop, more will start growing canola. There also is a benefit to having the crop grown in the region, he said. “It lets people know how far away it is coming from and to see the economic impacts,” he said. Madison has been at the front of that push, Keever said. “He’s the first commercial farm in the country we know of growing the crop for biodiesel and then producing (oil and fuel) and selling the surplus,” Keever said. “He is way beyond any other farmer in the area.” While Madison likes the thought he is sending less money to the oil companies, his focus is the bottom line. “My objective was to decrease my cost and increase my value.” He’s not only getting oil and fuel out of the process, he also plans to sell the leftover black pasty meal to feedlots for about $145 a ton. PGG sells its crushed seeds to dairies, Gosiak said. Instead of rushing in, PGG is trying to grow with the market. “Our program is to grow our capacity at the same rate as the feedstock capacity,” he said. The co-op recently received a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant for $300,000 that will help with research and marketing, he said. It also hopes to eventually start manufacturing biodiesel. Credit: Tri-City Herald, Kennewick, Wash.

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