CHENANGO COUNTY – Plymouth resident Giff Foster says producing bio-diesel is as “easy as making chocolate milk.” And he should know. The Connecticut-transplant, who currently calls a 76-acre hay farm in rural Chenango County home, has been recycling waste vegetable oil into the alternative fuel for the better part of six years.
“It’s the energy of tomorrow, available today,” Foster told a group of Farm Bureau members from Chenango and surrounding counties last week. His home-based production facility was one of the stops the group made during an event planned by the Chenango County Farm Bureau. Foster is on the organization’s board of directors and serves as energy chair.
The tour began at the CCFB office in Norwich, where the organization’s president, Bradd Vickers, was the first to address the crowd. A vocal supporter of alternative energy, he is an advocate of the 25 x ‘25 initiative, the goal of which is for 25 percent of the United States’ energy to be produced by American agriculture by 2025. And according to Vickers, bio-diesel fits the bill.
“We’re talking a renewable resource here that disconnects us from our dependence on foreign oil,” he explained.
Using a display which won the CCFB its 12th national award from the American Farm Bureau – the local group has the distinction of being the most recognized county level organization in the federation – Vickers described his vision for local bio-diesel production.
It would start, he explained, with local farmers planting oil-seed crops, such as sunflowers or rapeseed, on either marginal land or as a rotational crop. Once harvested, the seeds would be pressed to make a food-grade vegetable oil, which could be sold to local restaurants.
Once used, the waste vegetable oil would be returned to the farm, or a regional processing center, to be converted into bio-diesel, which would be used as fuel for farm implements, on-farm vehicles and heating oil.
By-products of the process would all be used on-farm as well, Vickers said. The meal created when the seeds are pressed, would be used as livestock feed. The sediments filtered out of the waste oil would used as a high-nutrient compost. The glycerin produced in the final stages of the process, can be used to make soap, mixed with water and sprayed on fields as a fertilizer, or even pelletized with hay as an alternative heating fuel.
After hearing about the process, those interested in continuing the tour headed to Plymouth, where they had the chance to see bio-diesel production first hand. Foster related stories of his trials and errors with the process, as he guided the group threw the out-building which houses his production facility.
“There’s a lot of artistry in this,” he said. Although, based on his frequent use of words like titration and transesterification, there is a great deal of chemistry involved in the process as well.
Foster maintains that if he, a bass player from Connecticut, can produce bio-diesel, anyone can. Especially with the ready availability of materials pertaining to bio-diesel production on the internet. The recipe, he said, is simpler than that for chocolate chip cookies.
The benefits of bio-diesel itself are many, according to Vickers and Foster, who both use it as fuel in their vehicles. It is a greener fuel, they say, with lower greenhouse gas emissions than fossil fuels. Because it acts as a solvent and has a greater lubricity than the standard petro-diesel fuel on the market, it also runs cleaner and more efficiently. It also supports local agriculture, and would help farmers cut costs.
Vickers, who is considered something of an expert on the topic of natural gas exploration, also sees an opportunity to use bio-diesel, which is biodegradable and non-toxic, as an alternative in gas drilling, both as a lubricant and in the controversial hydro-fracking process.
“Here’s a perfect opportunity for petro-chemical industry to get involved in an agricultural energy product,” agreed Foster.
According to the bio-diesel producer, New York State lags behind in their development of this alternative energy source. Information he distributed indicated approximately 700 major fleets – including the U.S. military – are already using bio-diesel.
“We want New York to get caught up and step ahead,” explained Foster, who said he has a vision of sunflowers being grown in the medians of all the state’s major highways, both attracting tourists with their beauty and fueling the state’s fleet with their oil-producing seeds.