Lifestyles

Farmer to begin growing his own tractor fuel

Published: October 31, 2010

See Original article on JCFloridan.com

By Deborah Buckhalter

Jackson County farmer Jeff Pittman is turning sunflower oil into fuel that will soon power his irrigation engines.

Research and experimentation has been ongoing since 2008, when traditional fuel prices were inching toward $4 a gallon. So far, minor amount of the biofuel has been produced along the way, but Pittman expects to convert a bigger batch for use next spring.

He had first hoped to run some of his older tractors will the fuel, but realized using sunflower oil in old tractors wasn’t the most efficient use of the alternate power source.

Even with using the cheaper sunflower power, he realized it wasn’t smart to use the older tractors, instead of the newer ones he has. The old tractors don’t have the technologically advanced implements he needs to run his operation on a best-practices basis.

He decided he was better off using the sunflower-based fuel to run his irrigation system.

When Pittman first talked about his sunflower project in a Jackson County Floridan article in 2008, his story caught the attention of a 16-year-old student from the Graceville area.

The young man, Nathan Torro, had become interested in biofuels at the age of 15. His fascination with the concept began one day while he was looking on the Internet for ideas for an FFA speech he had to make in a competition.

He ran across a story about a citrus peel- and waste-pulp biodiesel project under way at that time.

He wrote his speech, winning first place in district, but his interest went far beyond that speech.

By the time Pittman’s story was published, Torro had advanced knowledge of the biodiesel concept. Torro had by then also transferred his high school credits to Washington-Holmes Vocational Center, and his interest in alternative fuel sources continued. From a farm family himself, Torro saw great possibilities in the emerging science for his own operation.

Reading Pittman’s story, Torro saw the project as an opportunity for him to work with a real-world application of the alternative fuel process.

He contacted Pittman, and they’ve been working together ever since. The tech center embraced the study and got involved, buying equipment needed to further the project on campus. Two years later, the school is moving that equipment Chipley High School, where student training in the field will continue under the tech center’s guidance.

Torro helped Pittman find the best press to extract the oil. That was a long, involved process, Torro said, since there are many types of presses in the marketplace, and the equipment can be finicky.

Pittman’s press is due to arrive by the end of 2010 or early 2011. Conversion should start after Pittman’s spring crop of sunflowers comes in.

Ultimately, Pittman hopes to run the press around the clock to capture as much oil as possible, then use a converter to turn it into B100 biofuel. The press is capable of extracting 18,000 gallons of oil a year.

Pittman said he’s excited about the prospect of getting the equipment in operation.

“It’s been a real trying process, but interesting, too, so it’s easy to stay excited about it,” he said. “We’ve burned a small amount in the trials, enough to run a little over four hours in an irrigation field, but it worked, and I’m anticipating good things.

“We burn 50,000 to 68,000 gallons (per year), and if we could just capture 20 percent in the dry times, when we really need irrigation, and toward harvest time if we’re having supply or extreme price problems like we’ve seen in the past, I’d be very happy.”

Torro said the biofuel, in trials, has also been used in a couple of pick-up trucks and tractors, with no problems and no apparent ill effects on the vehicles used.

The biofuel was produced on average at a cost of between 35 and 75 cents a gallon, he said.

For Pittman, that could translate into major savings.

He has more than 40 irrigation systems on his farm, and they use an average of five gallons of fuel per hour. He runs the system every third night and it takes 24 hours to put one inch of moisture on 40 acres.

“The year dictates the amount of water you use, and we’re coming out of an extremely challenging year because of the heat and drought,” Pittman said. “With the biofuel, I’m trying to take these cost extremes out of the equation. In irrigating this year, I saw an increase of 30 percent in expenses. That’s what happens when you start irrigating in a drought year. The more traditional fuel I have to use, the more pressures there are on my bottom line. If I can make some biofuel, I can start whittling down the inputs, offset the costs.”

Torro will continue to assist Pittman once all the equipment arrives and the sunflower harvest is ready. The components needed are the press, conversion equipment, a centrifuge and a combicleaner.

Torro is looking to a future for himself in the biofuel industry. He’s studying mechanics with a specialty in John Deere tractors right now. Some day, he’d like to work his way into an executive position that would get him into a biofuel research job.

He’s already made a splash in that arena. He and another student at Washington Vo-Tech presented a biofuel technology project to win the regional and Florida championships of a Skills USA National Convention competition. They “came within an eyebrow hair” of winning first place at the national level, Torro said, according to comments made by the judges.