Dl2—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 2,1981
Sunflower Power
Sunflower power that’s what
they’re calling it. A new fuel for
farm tractors that’s produced
right on the farm.
A British company has built the
machine to produce it. A North
Dakota farmer has one of them,
and he’s already making his own
tractor fuel.
The current issue of Farm Show
magazine tells about Charles
Bahm, described as the nation’s
first farmer to own and operate a
farm-size screw press for turning
sunflowers and soybeans into
tractor fuel. This enterprising
gentleman is running his diesel
tractors this spring with sunflower
power.
The oil extractor, manufactured
by Simon-Rosedowns, is called the
Mim-40 Screw Press. It’s powered
by a three-horsepower electric
motor and sells for $7560 F. 0.8.
Chicago. The unit will make about
five gallons of fuel per hour.
Here’s how it works.
Sunflower seeds are gravity fed
into the machine’s hopper and the
screw press mechanism separates
the meats and shells from the
sunflower oil. The oil is collected
on one side of the machine, while
the meats and shells are ground
into meal and collected on the
other side. The oil is then put
Farm
Talk
Jerry Webb
through a filter and into a fuel
storage tank, where it’s used as is
in the North Dakota farmer’s
diesel tractors.
The meal is used for livestock
feed. Bahm says it contains about
30 percent protein, so he’s mixing
it with ground wheat and barley
straw to maintain his beef cow
herd.
The farmer feels confident he’ll
have no long-range problems with
his diesel tractors running on
sunflower oil. With minor ad
justments and no modifications,
they seem to be doing fine. The
only trick in burning sunflower oil,
he says, is to run an engine under
load and run it hot.
Researchers at North Dakota
State University are using a
Japanese made extractor for a
wide variety of sunflower oil ex
periments. They feel it’s still too
early to start promoting sunflower
power for the farm.
“There are still too many
unanswered questions before you
start pouring sunflower oil into
your diesel-powered tractor. Wait
until more research results are in,
particularly on the long term effect
sunflower oO might have on engine
and fuel system parts,” advises
agricultural engineer Dr. George
Pratt. He also suggests that a
fanner who wanU 10 experunent
with this technique should buy a
few gallons of sunflower oil first,
just to see how he gets along with
it.
The researchers have been
burning pure sunflower oil with
generally good results. It’s a better
fuel than soybean oil, they say, and
it contains about 90 percent of the
energy value of number two diesel
fuel.
The researchers figure that if 75
percent of the oil can be extracted,
1500 pounds per acre of sunflower
seed would return 55 gallons of oil
per acre. A farmer would need
only eight percent of the oil
produced per acre to power the
equipment to produce the crop.
Back in the good old days of
horse power when farmers
produced their own energy, it took
about 30 percent of the crop just to
feed the horses.
Other farmers around the
country are moving ahead with
plans to burn soybean oil, peanut
oil, sunflower oil, or whatever else
they can get to replace diesel fuel.
It makes a lot of sense to cut out
the middlemen and the Arabs, and
the possibility for energy self
sufficiency on the farm is
fascinating.
NEW SERIES 102 ROLLFEEDMOBILE ANNOUNCED
Greater productive capacity coupled with
greatly increased operating efficiency and
decreased fuel consumption are in
corporated in the 1981 version of the well
known mobile feed processing machine,
the Series 102 FEEDMOBILE.
This mobile feed mill that processes
animal and poultry feeds on the farm
where they are used from farm produced
grains and roughages has been completely
re-engineered to reduce weight by more
than 20%... to reduce operating fuel con
sumption by more than 33%. At the same
time productive capacity and speed has
been increased. A completely fe-designed
drive train has fewer bearings, chain and
belt drives and gear boxes with the result
that friction has been materially reduced
to lower power demand.
Productive capacity has been increased
to 1,000 pounds per minute by enlarging
the mouth of the patented underfed ham
mermill. The hammermill will handle
whole bales or roughage at lower rpm’s.
OPERATOR AND
SALESMAN WANTED
r i >• * v* 4»v - 1* if /- „
Farmers have used'wind power
for generations to replace
mechanical and other power
sources for pumping water and
doing other tasks. And there’s a
great resurgence of interest in
wind power.
Some farmers are producing
alcohol from farm-produced
grains and using it as tractor fuel.
Others are making methane gas
from livestock manure and using
that to power stationary diesel
engines that produce electricity. A
700-cow dairy operation near
Gettysburg, will actually be
producing more electricity than is
needed on the farm and will be
selling it back to the power com
pany.
The question of producing
energy on the farm is an important
one. Obviously it’s no longer a
matter of can it be done, but more
*V» i»» ».* i tfc tATOfc’M&'taEßtt** *4" * 1 *■'
b6wsuccessfully canit be done and
at what price to the rest of the
economy?
If large chunks of agricultural
land are devoted to energy, they’D|
no longer be wailable to produce*
food. And that’s a deletnma the|
policy makerl are gomg to have to'
consider very carefully during the
next few years
Farmers fife'already diverting
some acres to energy production.
Some large companies are
Currently in the gasohol business,
and that’s diverting some
agricultural acres. Plans are on
the drawing boards for a lot more
of this kind of activity.
In the future, it won’t just be a
fanner producing his own energy.
It’s more likely to be a farmer
producing energy for the rest of us.
And that has serious implications
for our future food supply.
The 102 cubic foot capacity mixer in
cludes micro control for more accurate
proportioning of feed ingredients. A new
feature that further improved ingredients
proportioning is an optional, automatic
scale.
new design also facilitates
maintenance by reducing the number of
belt and chain adjustments and
replacements needed to keep the 1981
FEEDMOBILE in continuous, productive
operation.
The 1981, Series 102 FEEDMOBILE is
available equipped with the new hammer
mill, with an improved, rngh-pressure
roller or a combination of these two
systems for processing farm grown
materials to make highly productive
animal and poultry feeds with much lower
fossil fuel consumption, less labor and at
lower operating costs.
FEEDMOBILE, INC.
727 Furnace Hills Pike
Lititz. PA 17543
717-626-2680