Chinese-made equipment is now available to make bio-diesel on farm using farmer's own oil seed crop.

From the Hillsboro Free Press, October 18, 2006


Russell Groves has turned a vision of American energy independence into a bio-diesel business that may create new cash flow and financial freedom for farmers here and throughout the country.
Groves already has been selling the crushers and separation tanks that can process oil seeds on the farm into ready to go diesel guel.
Now the Marion County resident who lives south of Hillsboro is setting up a front window shop and office for Flint Hills Diesel at 131 N. Main in Hillsboro, next to Cooperative Grain and Supply.
Grove's process appears strongly desirable considering the huge financial pinch farmers have been in with the latest in increased fuel costs.
Consider that Groves said that for $9,000--a price within the scope of normal farm equipment costs for farmers--he can set a farmer up to make 100 gallons of bio-diesel daily that needs no more processing or special equipment to use in trucks and tractors.
The only other costs besides the purchase price are for growing or buying the oil seed and the energy to run the equipment.
As is done with many machinery purchases, Grojves said several farmers could join together to buy the equipment.
Groves said he also is looking for farmers or others who might want to become custom oil processors, just as is done with custom combine harvesting of grain crops.
His equipment comes in a range of sizes to fit the situation. He currently sells four, six and 10-ton presses.
Among his considerations is to get the heavier machines available, obtain some hundreds of acres of oil seeds himself, and begin processing them in Hillsboro. He can get up to 50 and 100-ton presses.
Groves cited Dan McAmoil at Penoke, near Hill City, Ks, as an example of a farmer setting up to produce his own bio-diesel.
Groves said McAmoil, who farms 2,000 acres, has made 4,000 gallons of bio-diesel since spring, and has been running his equipment on it.
Up until now, Groves swaid McAmoil has been buying the oil seed he needs from the elevator.
But, He added, "Dan figures to make the diesel he needs that he will grow 125 acres of sunflowers next year. A hundred acres of sunflowers will make most farmers energy independent. Under the current system with petroleum diesel, it would take the profit from 500 acres of milo to pay the same fuel bill."
McAmoil uses a two-cycle, 28-horsepower listeroid engine powered by bio-diesel to produce 15 to 18 gallons of sunflower oil an hour.
Groves has researched why sunflowers and canola fit most home production diesel systems better while soybeans are better suited for an industrial market.
As a younger man, Groves said he entered journalism school at the University of Kansas detrmined, like many other idealistic students, to follow left-wing commitments. The memory of President Nixon's Watergate scandal was fresh in his mind.
But then the Arab Oil Embargo of the 1970's occurred. President Carter had the Iran embassy hostage crisis to deal with.
"It dawned on me that this country is enslaved to to foreign oil, and it made me angry," he said.
Groves also realized the lifeline of oil from the Middle East, upon which the United States depends, is "thin and fragile."
"It would be so easy for that line to become disrupted, sending our country down the tubes," he added.
He became a self-styled converted conservative with a carreer in broadcast radio. President Reagan became one of his heroes.
Groves decided renewable energy would be the solutin to the nation's energy needs, and that if the country didn't move to them voluntarily, it would be forced to by circumstances to survive.
He studied wind energy, solar energy, and the growing ethanol industry.
"I first read about bio-diesel in Mother Earth News," he said. "I realized it made the most sense for liquid fuels to replace petroleum in terms of enery in required and energy out produced. Any fuel needs to be a multiplier--you need it to produce more BTU's of energy than it took to produce it."
Groves said the ethanol industry started with an efficiency of zero--with one BTU required to produce a BTU--and the leftover grain millings still made the process profitable.
Now, he said, the ethanol industry has increased efficiencies to double efficiency with two BTUs produced for one expended.
To reach the point where he is now, Groves first bought a generator through Joel Koch, an importer and Vietnam veteran in Portland, Ore. He asked Koch if he could become a dealer through him for the Chinese-manufactured bio-diesel equipment that came small enough for individual farm use.
Any American equipment available was for large, industrial production, he said.
One of his earliest sales was to Amish farmers in Iowa, wwhere the use of the farm-made biodiesel slowly is spreading.
He is free to determine which direction to head from here beccause he has managed to develop the buisness without debt, and "there are always investors ready when you mantion bio-diesel.
Groves said most farmers will automatically think soybeans when it comes to what oil seed to crush for their own needs. He said soybeans have been used to make oil by large companies such as Cargill, as more of an industrial process as a by-product in making soybean meal.
It involves more of a refraction process and cooking to make feed product and oil there.
With sunflower seed, Groves said a farmer typically can get 40 to 45 percent oil when crushing the seeds. A New Sun variety gets above 50 percent.
This amounts to two to three gallons of oil to the bushel or 80 to 90 gallons per ton. Up to an additional 8 to 10 percent of the tojtal oil can be left in the feed cake grain remaining for cattle feed.
Soybeans more typically run abut 20 percent oil, he said.
Groves said if a value of $12.50 a hundredweight is assigned to the sunfor or canola seed used, the oil processed cost about $1 a gallon plus the processing costs.
The crush cake of oil-depleted seed left normally is in the upper 20s percent protein with a fat content of 8 to 10 percent--"pretty good feed," Groves said.
A farmer can feed it to his own animals or sell it to cattle eeders at an average range of from $120 to $180 a ton, he added.
Groves estimated that if a person goes to the elevator to buy seed for crushing, it can raise costs to $2 to $3 a gallon.
The processing for the grain begins with augering it into the hopper on a press machine.
McAmoil, Groves said, covers the auger with aluminum foil to catch its heat, thus extracting a higher percent of oil from the heated seed.
The seed goes into a reducing screw that crushes it with the oil pouring out into a pan and the cake ejected at the end.
From there, the oil is taken to a separation tank, where about 15 percent methanol is added to it. The methanol acts as a catalyst to settle out the less combustible glycerine leaving the methanol as a desirable part of the fuel.
McAmoil chose not to do that, but instead thins his oil with gasoline for combustion.
Although most farmers will think of sunflowers as the better crop in Kansas, Groves said it can be advantageous to consider canola.
He said John Griffin of Griffin Seed Co. at Nickerson, Ks, is making an effort to offer canola varieties that can grow well in southern regions where it is hotter. Canola more commonly is grown in northern states such as Wisconsin.
Since canola belongs to the same family, Groves said, many persons will find that it first resembles broccoli when they see it. The seed is "round as a marble," and two-thirds the size of milo (grain sorghum). Groves said equipment handling it must be very tight to avoid losses.
Canola can be fall or spring planted following very closely the cycle for wheat, he said.
Grove's new location will enable him to demonstate the equipment in a basement that is accessible by a freight elevator.
He is working with a 17-yar-old Oklahoma FFA student who wanted to make bio-diesel productin his senior project, and said he looks forward to working with other young people.