Thursday, November 6, 2008

Sue Roesler

He`s not an auto mechanic, but he is excited about biodiesel and what it could mean for producers in the upper Midwest.

"We`re studying the potential of biodiesel from locally grown oilseeds by producers," says Flynn, a research chemist at Montana State University`s Eastern Ag Research Center in Sidney. "We spend a lot of money for oil. If we can (make) our own, why not?"

This spring, SunBio Systems, Inc., based in California, set up a small, farmstyle biorefinery and reactor at the MSU satellite site in Sidney.


Flynn is now going through crushing oilseed and making biodiesel in the hopes of refining some that will meet ASTM (American Society for Testing and Measurements) standards.

"We still haven`t made a clean batch," said Flynn, adding it has been a constant learning curve for the chemist and technicians at the lab who have run several batches through in their effort to get it right.


"Making it isn`t the problem," he added. "We`re making it fine. The challenge is cleaning it up to meet ASTM standards."

If it doesn`t meet ASTM standards, the biodiesel won`t burn clean in the engine.

SunBio Systems president Steve Austin said they have set up a couple of these small refineries in the country. Their goal is to find several producers who want to pool together to buy a refinery, set it up in a shop, grow their own oilseeds, crush them and make enough biodiesel to run all their farm equipment.

He said that the country needs to use more of its own home-grown biofuels to keep fuel prices low in the future.

Recently, Flynn had two more "clean" appearing samples of biodiesel he had made that morning from safflower sitting on his lab counter.

"This is our best attempt yet," he said.

Flynn said he will be using all different kinds of oilseeds including canola, sunflower, flax, and camelina. They initially considered soybean but decided not to go with it because "soybean has priced itself way out of the market."

After crushing both oleic and linoleic types of these oilseeds, they will use the oil to create the biodiesel. Then they test the product to measure its horsepower.

Flynn said the research involves looking at how biodiesel developed from the crops compares in terms of storage, combustion, gelling properties and energy levels.

Making the biodiesel using the different crops - well, that`s where the grease comes in. Flynn said he can spend up to a half a day between biodiesel batches cleaning the equipment.

"The whole system has to be well cleaned," he added.

During the biodiesel process, Flynn uses methanol, catalyst and the oil.

He combines that in the reactor, heats it and mixes it until a reaction takes place. The biodiesel and glycerol are formed and 95 percent of the glycerine settles out in a half hour. Then the excess methanol is removed.

After a certain amount of time, he does a "water wash" where the biodiesel is washed and impurities come out. He "pulls a vaccuum" on the methanol to get the excess removed. Then the substance is passed through a resin column that absorbs impurities, he said.

The trick is to get as many impurities as possible off, and they don`t want to leave any residual methanol behind.

"Even a sample with only .2 of impurities won`t pass," he said.

Flynn says he enjoys making the bio-diesel, calling it a chemist`s dream come true. But he would definitely like to have a batch that passes standards.

Each time he makes from five to 10 gallons of the oil and after taking samples, stores the rest. When the sample doesn`t pass, the oil is dumped.

When the center receives the all clear on a sample, they will begin sending the oil to MSU`s Northern College in Havre, Mont.

"They have a new biofuels department," Flynn said. The department has the equipment to test biodiesel that fits ASTM standards on various engines.

He said researchers have developed the type of hybrid oilseeds that can be used to make biodiesel. Since biodiesel freezes, the oilseeds need to make the type of biodiesel that can pass "the cold point" test.

Austin said they are also making biodiesel from waste vegetable oils at restaurants. He expects there will be many uses for the smaller type biorefinery setups around the country.

At an ag tour this summer, Flynn told the group that the leadership for biodiesel is in agriculture country in the upper Midwest. One of the many biofuel research projects at the satellite center will focus on the amount of oil and diesel that can be produced per acre in local fields, he said.

"We are growing the type of crops here that can be used in biofuels, ethanol and biodiesel," he said.

Once the refinery at the Sidney lab becomes productive, they plan to buy canola, camelina, safflower and other oilseeds from local producers.

While pure biodiesel offers the most benefits in terms of pollution reduction, biodegradability and engine lubricity, Austin said it is usually blended with petroleum-based diesel fuel.

The site in Sidney is an ideal area for biofuels production. Manufacturing in the area includes Sidney Sugars, Inc., which uses locally-grown sugarbeets and the Anheuser-Busch facility which takes in locally grown barley.


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