Vegetable oil to go: PEAS farm gets grant to adapt alternate-fuel tractor

[jpak]

http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2007/04/12/news/mtregional/news06.txt

It's only a $3,000 grant, but the funding to test drive a German invention that allows engines to run on straight vegetable oil opens up a world of hope - and possibilities - for Missoula's Garden City Harvest PEAS farm.

The Rattlesnake Valley farm recently received funding from the National Center for Appropriate Technology to retrofit its tractor with something called an Elsbett system, which has been used in European vehicles for years but has not yet been applied to heavy equipment.

“I know it is only $3,000, but we think this a project where we could get a lot of bang for our buck,” said Josh Slotnick, farm director. “If this works, it means we could, in all reality, grow crops like safflower and canola and grow our own fuel.”

Advances in alternative fuel options won't happen unless individuals and agencies take a chance on new technologies and serve as pilot projects, said Slotnick, who also teaches environmental studies courses at the University of Montana.

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[jwirr]

1. I am happy about any kind of research into alternative fuels but I

hope that they will also look at the problem of lose of food for the world.

[jpak]

2. Very little "people food" is lost to the human food chain from biofuels production

Less than 3% of the world's grain production is used for biofuels...and most of the soy and corn grown in the US is for cattle feed - not people feed.

Spent distillery mash from ethanol production is used for cattle feed - as is pressed oilseed meal.

Soymeal can be consumed by humans as well.

Global warming is a greater threat to global food security than biofuels and biofuels are part of the solution to that problem.

[jwirr]

3. Thank you.

[4dsc]

6. Let be more precise!

The grain it takes to fill a 25-gallon tank with ethanol just once will feed one person for a whole year. Converting the entire U.S. grain harvest to ethanol would satisfy only 16 percent of U.S. auto fuel needs.

[jpak]

7. Yes, let's be more precise

The corn starches used to make ethanol are the same starches that are used to produce high fructose corn syrup - a commodity produced in great abundance and with very little nutritional value.

You would die of malnutrition if you consumed it as your "year's supply" of corn.

During ethanol production, the corn germ/gluten protein, oils and much of the carbohydrate are not utilized. These are converted into yeast/corn-mash livestock feed with very high nutritional value.

It is used to produce high nutritional value people food - meat.

Much of the corn used during ethanol production remains in the human food chain - and what is used is of little nutritional value.

Finally, nobody claims that corn ethanol can replace US petroleum consumption, but it can replace MTBE oxygenate in gasoline (MTBE is a serious ground water contaminant) and reduce US greenhouse gas emissions.

Things the biofuels haters conveniently forget...

[piedmont]

9. We're not talking about ethanol.

We're talking about using vegetable oil, produced at the source, on the farm, to power tractors and equipment to produce our food. It's just like how, before tractors, farmers used to plant a certain amount of corn or other crop for each mule they had. Adoption of oil-burning engines would be a MAJOR step toward securing our food supply.

[jpak]

10. Yup

When diesel prices (now more expensive than gas) go to >$5 a gallon, farmers are going to get together to produce their own biodiesel (which can be produced at low cost with little technical expertise).

Methanol and potassium hydroxide for biodiesl production can be made locally from wood pyrolysis and wood ash.

Biodiesel, other renewable energy sources (biogas, PV, solar thermal and wind) and organic production methods are going to save our bacon down on the farm...

[razzleberry]

4. anything is better than petroleum

disconnect from the petroleum grid

[GliderGuider]

5. "Nothing" is better than petroleum..

As in, conservation to the point that we're using no liquid fuels at all.

Hey, it's just as realistic as the notion that we might disconnect from the petroleum supply while there's still some left.

[piedmont]

8. Great-- but isn't this essentially 100 yr-old technology?

Didn't the first diesel engine run on vegetable oil?

I think this is an awesome way to improve food production security-- the production of oil is simple enough that farmers can produce their fuel in shed on their own farms instead of relying on a thousands-of-miles-long supply line.