Farmers on the panhandle of Florida can now make their own biodiesel on the farm with the help of the Three Rivers Resource Conservation and Development Council (RC&D) in Milton through USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service.

The council recently invested in a portable biodiesel extruder that can be taken out to local farms to make biodiesel from plants and used cooking oil, according to Coordinator John Harper.

“We relied on the knowledge of one of our county commissioners who is an expert in biodiesel processes. We work with our farmers and show them how to get into biodiesel production for themselves,” Harper said. The washing machine-sized processor can produce 100 gallons of biodiesel in ten hours and can easily transported to a farm.

The extruder has been out for demonstrations around the panhandle area in recent months, including a bioenergy workshop held September 19 at the first annual Northwest Florida Bioenergy Conference and Expo.

Randall Weiseman of Southeast Agnet interviewed John Harper at that event. Listen to that interview here: [audio:http://www.zimmcomm.biz/biodiesel/john-harper.mp3]