Drilling for Oil
By Becky Beyers
Researchers in Roger Ruan's lab are testing algae for its potential as an oil source.
Scientists are in the midst of an oil rush, but not for the black gold. This gold is yellow and green, and it comes from plant-based sources.
Some of the oils and their byproducts will be converted to fuel; the rest can be turned into food, either for animals or humans. Fast-changing economics in both the food and fuel markets mean CFANS researchers are searching for oil sources with multiple uses that provide flexibility for growers and processors.
Oil and feed
A couple of years ago, agronomy and plant genetics professor Paul Porter heard from a Wisconsin colleague who was interested in a method that allowed farmers to crush oilseed crops and use the resulting oil to make biodiesel right on their farms. “I thought, if they’re doing it in Wisconsin, why not in northwestern Minnesota where we have a lot of canola?” Porter says. After some grant money became available, Porter and his team bought the necessary equipment and set it up on a farm in Roseau County last summer as a demonstration project.
Paul Porter, professor of agronomy and plant genetics, leads experiments in extracting oil from canola for uses on farms.
The machinery involves pressing the oil out of canola—which leaves behind meal that can be fed to livestock—and then creating biodiesel by adding methanol and a catalyst to the oil. The process can be done on a scale ranging from 20 gallons to more than 2,000 gallons, Porter says, so would work as a single-farm operation or for a group of farmers. “It’s an easy process, simpler than making chocolate-chip cookies,” he says.
At around the same time, a master’s degree student working with Porter, Seth Fore, was hired to research whether farmers would use such a system, and what complications might be involved. He began interviewing the Wisconsin farmers who’ve been using a system similar to Porter’s, and soon found that the answers are complicated.