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Firm looks to advance with renewable energy Tuesday, September 26, 2006
By Erik Posz
BIRD ISLAND, MInn. -- Renewable energy is the buzzword in agriculture today.
It is being touted as grassroots movement that is growing in new and interesting ways. The field of renewable energy isn't being developed in boardroom or at the top of a skyscraper in New York City. It is being developed and grown right here in the heartland of the country; where corn, soybeans, cattle and poultry are being raised.
One new venture that recently sprung up in this fledgling field is Sunrise Agra Fuels in Bird Island.
The company produces pellets for corn and pellet-burning stoves, which isn't new. What is new is that Robert Ryan, Russ Koopman and Jared Winkelman aren't making their pellets out of wood. The trio is producing pellets out of bean stalks, chaff, corn stalks, and other "waste" biomass products left in fields after harvest.
The idea is catching on quickly.
The three energy entrepreneurs are working hard to keep production on track for their goal of producing 7,500 tons of the new biomass fuel for the coming heating season.
Sunrise Agra Fuel is the perfect example for the grassroots foundation of the renewable energy movement.
The company didn't start out as a business plan or even as a way to make money, but rather an idea kicked around over a cup of coffee after church one Sunday morning.
"Jared and Russ both bought used pellet stoves from me," Ryan said. "From that time on, we started tinkering around with the pellets and every Sunday morning in church, Russ and I would monkey around with talk of trying to find fuel sources around here to use, instead of imported wood."
What really spurred the group on was their effort to find a way to reduce the amount of clinkers they were getting in their stoves from burning corn.
"Clinkers are the residue left behind when corn is burned," Ryan said. "Basically, when corn burns it becomes molten and burns as a liquid. The clinker is starch left from that process that becomes as hard as a rock."
Ryan said that Koopman was looking for something to add to the corn to reduce the clinkers that he got in his used stove.
They first looked at corn stover, but felt the ash content was too high. So they moved on to other biomass products.
"We are still tinkering with different recipes," Ryan said. "But we do have the basic formula down and it works well."
The Sunrise Agra Fuel pellets work well. Each pound of pellets produce 8,200 BTUs of heat.
That's more heat than either hardwood pellets or shell corn.
The biomass pellets are also easier to burn than corn. The pellets produce less than 2 percent ash and none of the rock-hard clinkers.
Agra Fuel pellets can be burned as the primary fuel source or mixed with wood pellets or shelled corn.
"When you mix the pellets with corn, you get a nice fine ash -- no clinkers," Ryan said. "Plus you can use the ash as garden fertilizer when you're done."
For more information, call Sunrise Agra Fuels at (320) 365-4324 or toll free at 866-495-2887 or visit their Web site: http://www.sunriseagrafuels.com |
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