Canola will be used as fuel for trucks and tractors

Tag : Native Produce
Dean Price smiled Tuesday as he eagerly dug his hands intowhat he thinks will be the next black gold: six acres' worth oftiny, round, black canola seeds.
In those seeds, cascading into the pronounced 100-foot tall grainbin on U.S. 220 in Bassett, Price sees the next wave ofnon-petroleum options and the future of America's energy industry.
In just a few days and with some chemical conversions, that canola-- grown at the Upper Piedmont Research Center at the Chinqua Pennplantation in Rockingham County, N.C. -- will be ready as fuel fortrucks and tractors.
It also can be used for home heating.
"This biodiesel is going to be a big part of the future," saidPrice, who has been in the truck stop industry for 14 years,operating the Red Birch Country Market truck stops along U.S. 220.
"We have no choice."
For the past few years, Price has worked with farmers in RockinghamCounty and Pittsylvania County, engineers, chemists and agronomiststo figure out a way to kick America's foreign-oil habit.
It started after Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans and theprice of fuel soared as the government dipped into nationalreserves.
"It got me thinking to how vulnerable we were to a shortage, andhow that would cripple our economy," Price said.
So he asked himself: "What could I do on a small scale that couldpossibly make a difference?"
Alternative energy was the clear solution, and as he delved intoresearch and crossed paths with others in the field, it seemedclear that canola was his answer.
Dr. Harbans Bhardwaj, a professor at Virginia State University whohas been studying the seed for years -- and with whom Price hasbeen consulting -- says canola "produces the best oil for biodieselmaking."
The fatty acid composition of canola, which is low in saturatedfatty acids, translates into the high quality of biodiesel,Bhardwaj explained. At 44 percent, canola seeds have a high oilcontent -- better, he argues, than soybeans and corn, which arealso being used to generate alternative forms of energy.
And it's not just the higher efficacy of canola that makes itbetter.
Food versus fuel
A few years ago, ethanol was the rave. Farmers across the UnitedStates were contracting to grow corn and wheat for fuel andreceiving subsidies from the government.
Now, the price of an ear of corn has "skyrocketed." Livestockfarmers are having trouble affording feed for their animals, andthe world is facing a famine crisis.
With canola, Bhardwaj says, you don't run into as big of a problem,explaining that after crushing the oil out of the seed, the mealremains.
"And that's one of the best feed stocks for dairy cattle, forswine, turkeys and chicken," he said.
Furthermore, he said, three or four years of research has shownthat planting soybeans in rotation with canola garners a greateryield of soybeans.
And that's not the only way that canola avoids entanglement in thecriticism, said Sam Brake, who serves as a liaison between RedBirch and contracting farmers. The variety of canola that thrivesin the Piedmont is a winter crop; planted in October and harvestedin June, just in time for farmers to plant corn and wheat.
The emissions from biofuels are much less toxic than those fromdiesel.
The mechanics
Along his research path, Price connected with Derrick Gortman, aself-titled "master multi-crafter."
Under the administration of President Carter, who promoted taxincentives for alternative fuel methods, Gortman spent a lot oftime "just seeing what was out there...(spending) hours, lots andlots of hours" in research, holed up in libraries throughout hisnative North Carolina at Winston-Salem and Greensboro.
With a minimal amount of community college credits available, thistime spent was mostly his own.
His research mostly stopped during the administration of PresidentReagan and picked up again when tax incentives were againavailable.
"I needed to pick something," he said, shrugging his shoulders. "Ihave a diesel van, and my parents are farmers."
So, Gortman built a biodiesel processor in his basement and beganexperimenting.
The fruit of that labor is the Red Birch facility.
Gortman grinned as he looked around the truck stop/fuel station/biodiesel production facility Tuesday -- quite a step above thefirst refinery he built in his basement.
He paints a relatively simple process.
First, the canola seeds are crushed to extract the oil. The oil isprocessed, which involves two lines of three tanks each.
One hundred gallons of canola oil are dumped into the first tankwhere Gortman adds chemicals, including sodium hydroxide andmethanol. After the pump stops in the tank, glycerin settles out ofthe oil.
Then the oil goes through the wash tank, extracting the chemicals.The oil goes through another wash and then is laid out to dry.
A few hours later, it's ready to be sold.
Local impact
Part of the beauty of the whole operation, Price says, is that it'sall condensed. With the processor on site, it doesn't need to betrucked for sale.
In fact, he says, "90 cents of every dollar stays local withbiofuels. The other 10 cents goes to the federal government."
And most important, he argues, "It doesn't go to support the verypeople we're in a conflict with."
Price expects a gallon of the biodiesel to sell for between $2 and$2.50; half of what diesel is selling for across the country.
In his business, he said, he's lucky to make 10-15 cents on agallon of fuel. With the biodiesel, he's projecting a profit of $1per gallon.
He emphasized that this one truck stop isn't going to solve thefuel addiction in the area, not even the state. It's one part of abigger effort.
It's got to be a kind of "grassroots movement," he said. Heenvisions one or two small-scale operations, like his, in everycounty.
"In the face of a crisis in the United States, the farmer hasalways brought us through it," said Price, citing Washington andJefferson among others. "I truly believe Virginia farmers can doit."
Is it viable for the Piedmont?
Though biofuels have quickly integrated into mainstream vocabularyattached with ideals of environmentalism and decreasing dependencyon foreign oil, at a basic level a biodiesel operation is simplyanother business investment.
And it must be viable and profitable.
But, as Price said, it comes down to the farmer.
And the farmer has to answer a simple economics question: Willgrowing canola yield a good return on investment?
Agriculture extension agents in Pittsylvania and Rockinghamcounties agree the question hasn't yet been entirely answered.
"No farmer that I know is going to just jump on something right offthe gate without history and research," said Stephen Barts, who iswith the Virginia Cooperative Extension in Pittsylvania County.
He believes many farmers are worried about entry costs.
Typically, he said, commodity crops need to be grown on a largescale, which isn't something Virginians can do, especially comparedto bigger Midwestern states with flat, expansive land.
Additionally, the combines and other equipment needed for canolaare exceedingly expensive and maintenance support isn't asavailable as in other places.
Scott Shoulars with Rockingham County Agriculture Extension isn'tconvinced that canola's growing season will flow that well withother crops, including corn, wheat and soybeans.
Shoulars and Barts acknowledge, however, that canola presents a newoption, and with tobacco returns on a steady decline, farmers arein need of a new crop.
"There's definitely a possibility in there," said Barts, but hedoesn't see farmers clamoring over each others' fields to be firstin line for the seed.
The legwork
It's just not sensible for farmers to plant acres and acres of acrop they're not familiar with. But the way to get more familiarwith the seed is to grow it.
Enter Brake, Red Birch's resident agronomist.
"We're all learning together," he said. Brake, who comes from afarming family, is well aware of the uncertainties that come withstarting a new crop. In addition to being hands-on with theresearch projects, one of his roles is creating a newsletter forcanola growers in the region, including best times to plant, whento spray the plants with what and other agronomical concerns.
That first batch of seeds that came into the truck stop earlierthis week came from the Upper Piedmont Research Center at ChinquaPenn, where Dr. Joe French, superintendent of the research station,has been monitoring 56 varieties of the crop.
After just one year of growing, and particularly one that was hitwith a drought last summer, French isn't ready just yet to hop onthe biodiesel-powered train full speed ahead, and he suspects thatfarmers in the Piedmont aren't quite there either.
"You really need to (grow) three to five years and then do all thedata," he said. "You can take into account the normal fluctuationof water and what you can expect (from the crop), he said.
That doesn't mean he's pessimistic about the prospect of changingthe landscape of Piedmont growing. But he doesn't think that'llhappen "until (we know more about) the yields andexpectations...until you know the economics of it."
Brake, who comes from a long line of tobacco farmers, is confident.Biodiesel has gotten him excited about farming, he said.
"It's good for farmers, local economy stimulation, and that's goodfor all of us, and it burns clean, and that's good for all of us.... It's good for everybody."
Contact Sarah Arkin at or (434) 791-7983.
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