COVENTRY – Wouldn’t it be great if local farmers could use fallow or marginal land to produce renewable energy, which could be processed and used locally?
For Bradd Vickers, president of the Chenango County Farm Bureau President, this isn’t just a good idea. He strongly believes it is a viable option for Upstate New York.
“The message to the farmers is to start growing energy products,” Vickers told local agriculture leaders at a luncheon held in honor of National Agriculture Day at the Silo Restaurant on Friday.
In fitting with the event’s theme, “Sowing Seeds Today for Our Energy Needs Tomorrow,” Vickers invited Bob and May Miller of Enviro Energy to talk about biomass fuels.
“We’ve always been interested in the alternative energy idea,” explained May Miller. After years of research, the couple, who retired from farming more than a decade ago, started Enviro Energy with their adult son and his wife. In the fall of 2008, they began producing hay and grass pellets in their newly constructed facility in Wells Bridge.
The concept is to take grass and hay grown on marginal lands, grind it all up and compress it into pellets which can be used as fuel in biomass stoves much like wood pellets. The result is a completely renewable energy source that can be produced locally and is environmentally friendly.
Of course, it hasn’t been that easy. “We learned we can make a good grass pellet that burns fine,” Bob Miller explained, but it’s been a longer learning curve than they expected.
Working with researchers at Cornell University, the Millers have experimented with a number of different types of raw materials over the last few months. Much of what they use would be considered weeds or scrub brush by most people, he said, like the “old meadow stuff that hasn’t been cut in years.”
“We’re not competing with anyone,” Miller said, unlike some alternative fuels. “What we use, a goat or rabbit would starve to death on.”
Not only will it grow on marginal land, but it is highly sustainable with little or no need for fertilizers. It can also be harvested late in the season, so as not to disturb wildlife and song birds.
It is hard to imagine a resource more renewable than grass or hay. According to the Enviro Energy website, a new crop of grass can be grown in as little as 70 days, as opposed to the 20 or more years to grow a tree. And fossil fuels? Try 70 million.
Grass and hay pellets also burn well. According to Miller, the energy produced by his pellets are comparable to that generated by wood pellets. The grass and hay pellets generate between 7,200 to 7,900 BTUs per pound depending on their composition, he reported, as opposed to wood pellets made from sawdust which generate roughly 8,000.
The only real draw back in using the grass pellets as a fuel source, Miller said, is that they create more ash than pellets made from wood.
After several months in operation, the new company is still working out kinks with their equipment and exploring ways of making their operation more efficient. But they haven’t wavered in their commitment to their product. In fact, there are some exciting opportunities for the biomass fuel they produce, especially because of its low impact on the environment.
According to Miller, the pellets are very clean burning. They produce only 10 percent of the pollution caused by traditional fossil fuels. This creates an opportunity, he explained, because by mixing grass pellets with other fuels, like coal, it would be possible to lower emissions of harmful pollutants and greenhouse gasses.
For more information about Enviro Energy, visit their website at www.enviroenergyny.com.