University of Idaho initiatives to provide the state’s farmers with alternative markets for their crops, and the nation with alternative sources of fuels, span seven decades.

The latest is a joint effort by UI agricultural engineer Chuck Peterson and plant breeder Jack Brown. Peterson began studying the use of vegetable oil and biodiesel in 1979 when President Jimmy Carter urged the nation to become energy self-sufficient. Memories of the gas crisis and long lines at gas pumps were fresh. Brown’s current breeding program for rapeseed, canola, and mustard is a natural fit.

Above: A 2001 Volkswagen Beetle literally runs off the land, fueled by biodiesel that researchers, such as Chuck Peterson, left in photo, have developed at the UI. The fuel might offer a new market for a crop being developed by plant breeder Jack Brown, right in photo. Photo by Bill Loftus.

UI agricultural researchers began their investigation of industrial ethyl alcohol’s potential before Prohibition ended in 1933. The UI studies targeted demand by chemical manufacturing and the use of ethyl alcohol as a solvent, fuel, and antifreeze.

In September 1941, UI researchers Hobart Beresford and Leo M. Christensen reported on eight years of experimental production of ethyl alcohol from cull potatoes and farm crops.
The researchers reported that farmers had a real interest in alcohol production, since it most commonly relied on farm crops as a source. Their report, issued three months before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, foreshadowed events to come by looking back to the time before World War I.

“During the World War, the great increase in demand for alcohol in the manufacture of munitions and aircraft, and the large temporary European demand for corn and wheat made it necessary to expand the industry…” they wrote.

“The use of ethyl alcohol as a fuel holds the greatest immediate promise, and it is pertinent that the development of a large production of fuel alcohol will automatically establish the condition favorable to large chemical utilization,” they reasoned. Ethanol, of course, has found a market and is commonplace at gas pumps.

Biodiesel is poised to become the next big development in alternative fuels.

In 1979, Peterson went to a grocery store and picked up sunflower oil to mix with diesel as an experiment. The test went well enough that his next step was to power a tractor on pure sunflower oil. The tractor ran, but the cost was high. Peterson recalled, “When we got done, the tractor engine was completely shot.”

Flip forward a couple of decades.

Peterson has applied the lessons learned that first year as foundations of a successful biodiesel research program at the UI. He has worked with the J.R. Simplot Co. to develop a new alternative for vegetable oil used in frying potatoes by converting it to biodiesel. The new fuel recently drew applause at Yellowstone National Park as an environment-friendly alternative that is renewable and cleaner burning.

Within reason, Peterson suggests, is that agriculture may be able to grow its own fuel. That totals roughly 10 percent of U.S. diesel demand. Brown gets positively enthusiastic about biodiesel’s potential, in part because it offers an attractive use for a new crop he’s developing.
Brown has introduced a new plant that is unusually high in gluco-sinolates, compounds that give condiment mustard its pucker power. He is testing the meal that remains after seeds are pressed and converted into a soil fumigant. The oil is a byproduct from meal manufacturing, Brown said.

To show consumers that their ideas are ready for “Main Street” and the mall, Peterson and Brown bought a 2001 Volkswagen Beetle with a factory diesel engine. With no modifications to the engine, they pumped the first biodiesel into it in mid-June; Peterson then drove it to Yellowstone to participate in biomass energy meetings there. He also picked up an award for his help to fuel the greening of Yellowstone’s vehicle fleet.
 

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