NRMDI in the news

In case you missed Sarah Brock’s excellent article on NRMDI in The Auburn Plainsman on October 17th, you can catch it here. Brock not only looks at the new Institute and its mission, she examines NRMDI’s role in understanding and solving one of the more pressing issues that Alabama and the southeastern region are focused on — the lack of water resources. As her interview with Water Resources Center Executive Director Graeme Lockaby points out, it’s about more than the severe drought that is gripping the region:

Graeme Lockaby, director of the AU Water Resources Center, which is part of NRMDI, said that by 2025, Birmingham will have a severe shortage of water.

“The problem is, it’s going to get worse,” Lockaby said. “We’re going to have more situations like Birmingham.”

Lockaby said the water problem increases as developers create more impermeable surfaces, such as parking lots and concrete walkways, which means water cannot reach the soil to be recycled.

“The urbanization can be a really bad thing on water quality, but it can also affect water quantity,” Lockaby said.

The Plainsman is also running an online poll asking readers:

 

Will you make changes in your lifestyle to become more ‘green’?

yes xx%

no xx%

Total votes: 23 (as of midnight 10.25)

If it means that I get the opportunity to make my own biodiesel from cooking oil, count me in.  The poll is still open, so please register your opinion.

 

 

 

Biodiesel makes Economic Sense

The Dee River Ranch is the focus of a terrific feature piece in The Tuscaloosa News. This 10,000 acre ranch in Pickens County Alabama has partnered with Auburn University’s Natural Resources Management & Development Institute to create a biodiesel production facility right on the ranch property. Not only does this unit produce fuel to run the farm equipment, but it also creates a feed supplement for the cattle. The story by Mark Hawk includes a several photos of the facility in action.

The Dees, a brother and sister ranching team, also explain how necessity forced them to look for ways to become energy independent. Following Hurricane Katrina, fuel became scare and that scarcity threatened their harvesting. Coupled with price spikes, the thought of growing their own fuel seemed very natural.

The Tuscaloosa News story also includes valuable perspective on the importance of first steps like the one at the Dee River Ranch. Hawk’s interview with Larry Fillmer , Executive Director of Auburn University’s NRMDI points out the significance to the state and the region:

Because of Alabama’s vast potential, it, along with other Southern states, is often described as the Middle East of biomass energy.

But before Alabama farmers can become the sheiks of a new energy empire, Fillmer says the economics of biodiesel production must be perfected. Farmers already know they can make a profit raising versatile crops like soybeans – they need similar assurances before they will experiment with crops like switchgrass, which have a limited number of uses.

“We know that a farmer is probably going to need somewhere around $60 a ton for switchgrass to use that as a biofuel … so we have to find ways and other steps in the process to reduce costs.”

That is what makes efforts like the Dee River Ranch project so important. Fillmer said the institute hopes to establish similar biodiesel projects on a dozen farms throughout the state within the next year.

What’s Your Water Footprint?

The Weather Channel’s Stephanie Abrams has a terrific entry in her blog on October 13th that includes a quiz about personal water usage. It only takes three minutes and the results can be encouraging — or enlightening. Either way, every drop of water that each of us uses is important to account for. The wiser we all become about water usage, the better off we will be.

The Weather Channel’s Julie Martin who has been reporting on the Southeastern drought with recent segments from Lake Martin and Leesburg, deserves credit for pointing out the idea of a water footprint to TWC’s Abrams. According to Abram’s blog, Martin spotted a cool site, waterfootprint.org, and circulated it to The Weather Channel staff. The site is maintained by the Univesrity of Twente in collaboration with the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, the Netherlands.

Switchgrass gets Wired

The cover of this month’s Wired magazine features several blades of switchgrass. Inside this edition, four articles focus on renewable technologies and their promise in the energy sector.What is it like working in the hottest new emerging economic sector that is now attracting media attention and investment capital at a dizzying pace? Read on:

On a blackboard, it looks so simple: Take a plant and extract the cellulose. Add some enzymes and convert the cellulose molecules into sugars. Ferment the sugar into alcohol. Then distill the alcohol into fuel. One, two, three, four — and we’re powering our cars with lawn cuttings, wood chips, and prairie grasses instead of Middle East oil.

When you have finished, you will be ready to attend the Agriculture Energy Conference taking place on November 7th and 8th at the Auburn University Hotel and Dixon Conference Center. Here’s how to register.

Sunflowers Power Farm of Renewable Energy Pioneers

Persistently high and spiking energy costs eating away at farm profits in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina have turned Gulf Coast farmers into renewable energy pioneers.

Necessity is often described as the mother of invention. That certainly was the case with Gulf Coast farmers, Annie and Mike Dee, a brother-and-sister farming team in west Alabama. Several years ago, the price and availability of fuel had many Gulf Coast farmers’ backs against the wall. The Dees’ solution – make an endless supply of fuel from renewable sources on the farm – sunflowers and soybeans.

With assistance from Auburn University’s Natural Resources Management & Development Institute, Mike and Annie Dee acquired the technology and technical know-how to supply their own energy needs, using sunflowers and soybeans grown on their sprawling Dee River Ranch. Their combine, in a manner of speaking, has become an oil rig, harvesting crops that are pressed into oil and ultimately refined into biodiesel that powers their combine and other farm equipment.

And it’s an oil refining process in every sense of the word.

The processes for rendering sunflowers and soybeans into oil are essentially the same, though slightly more refined for soybeans. The soybeans are first heated and then run through a screw press, which extracts both oil and meal. The meal is then put through a second press to extract the remaining oil.

The virgin vegetable oil extracted from this pressing is then processed with a measured amount of methanol and lye, which aid in the extraction of glycerin. What remains, once the lye is removed, is a fuel source that can be used with any conventional diesel engine with no modification. It can be straight biodiesel or it can be blended with regular biodiesel at any proportion.

But the Dees don’t stop there. They’ve also found a way to close the environmental loop, mixing the meal generated from this refining process with other products to feed their cattle. This makes the process cost-effective.

Annie Dee says, “Our on-the-farm bio-diesel facility will make us more sustainable as a farm. We will use the crops to make fuel and then use the co-products, the cooked soybean or sunflower meal, as a source of protein for the cattle. Nothing that we use to make the fuel will leave the farm. That is stewardship!”

The Dees are not alone. Other Alabama farmers, entrepreneurs and even municipalities have issued their own personal declarations of energy independence and are proving this can be done cost effectively and in ways that enhance rather than harm the environment.

FAQs on Renewable Energy

The Alabama Cooperative Extension System weblog takes on the frequently asked questions about renewable energy. Ever wonder why corn-based ethanol is criticized for playing a role in world hunger? Curious as to the role the state of Alabama can play in strengthening America’s energy security. Mark Hall, a Renewable Energy specialist at ACES, has the answers.

Commodity Growers Focus on Energy

The Alabama Farmers Federation, along with the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs, NRMDI, and other agricultural groups, is sponsoring the fourth annual Alabama Agriculture Energy Conference at the Auburn University Hotel and Dixon Conference Center.

“With the soaring costs of energy, this conference is more important than ever to our farmers,” said Alabama Farmers Federation Commodity Director Jimmy Carlisle. “Farmers are eager to find ways to conserve energy and are equally interested in exploring the use of alternative, renewable fuels that may be better for the environment.”

Agriculture Energy Conference Plows New Ground

The 4th Annual Alabama Agriculture Energy Conference, sponsored by the Alabama Department of Economics and Community Affairs and by the Natural Resources Management & Development Institute at Auburn University will be held November 7-8 at the Auburn University Hotel and Dixon Conference Center.

This year’s conference will feature a host of presentations on topics that include, but are not limited to:

• The Emerging Bioenergy Industry

• The Link Between Water and Energy

• Biofuel Feedstock Logistics

• Energy Innovations on the Farm

• Heat and Power Production from Biomass

• Agricultural Energy Sustainability

• Forest Resources for Bioenergy

• Launching a Bioenergy Business