A new company out of Billings, Montana is offering to come to farms, crush the oilseeds farmers grow and even turn it into biodiesel to be burned right there on the farm.
This story from the Billings Business News says Paul Miller owns Big Sky Biofuels, which offers on-farm crushing and biodiesel conversion for farmers who have raised oil-seed crops:
“The idea is to encourage sustainable production and to have the farmer grow oilseed crops capable of fueling their operations,” Miller said.
Miller’s portable seed crusher and a generator that powers it fit on a flatbed trailer and can be hauled directly to a farm, where it can be used to extract oil from crops like canola, camelina, safflower and sunflower.
The crusher can process up to 5 tons of seed per day. Aside from yielding vegetable oil, the seed hulls can be used to make a protein-rich livestock feed, which can replace corn and other feed.
The farmers then have the option of either turning the oil into biodiesel for use on their own farms, or, if it is more profitable, they can sell the oil for someone else to use for either fuel or food (depending on the type of oil crushed).