Salute To Agriculture 2009 - The Roundup

16 ROUNDUP AG WEEK EDITION, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 2009
Check with us on our Spring Oil Sale
Shell Lubricants
Keep Your
Equipment
Going
With Shell
Products
Call Today
For Great
Protection
For Your
Valuable
Equipment
MODIFICATIONS
Local Oilseed Biodiesel Tests Continue
By Russ Wells
Research Chemist Charles Flynn has found that producing
quality biodiesel certainly has its ups and downs.
Flynn has been testing and fine-tuning the process to
make biodiesel from vegetable oils using a high-tech
biodiesel production and refining research unit.
The biodiesel is being produced from local oilseed
crops at the MSU Eastern Agricultural Research Center
in Sidney.
Flynn has been testing the production of biodiesel
with the refinery unit since last summer. He admits that
it hasn’t gone smoothly. “We had to make modifications,
but we’re getting there.”
Oil from five oilseed crops have been used in Flynn’s
tests so far including oleic safflower, linoleic safflower,
sunflower, canola and soybean oils. He also plans to do
tests with flax and camelina oils.
The production process has gone through several
revisions to get purified biodiesel. Flynn explains,
“Samples of the end product are sent to MSU-Havre
where they have a million dollars worth of equipment to
run all the ASTM (American Society for Testing and
Measurements) testing procedures.” The tests had originally
showed starting material remaining in the final product,
but Flynn’s modifications have addressed that problem.
The next step is to find out which biodiesel products
make the best fuel. “That is accomplished by running
the different fuels in an engine and checking the power
output. Emissions for the biodiesel also differ from one
Charles Flynn with biodiesl production system at EARC.
product to another,” Flynn said.
We Salute Our
Area Farmers!
To protect your equipment
and your livelihood, rely on
premium Shell oils and
fluids: ROTELLA ® T Multigrade
Motor Oils, SPIRAX ®
HD Gear Oils,
RETINAX ® WR2
Greases, DONAX ®
TD Transmission
Fluids and
SHELLZONE ® All-
Season Antifreeze.
So you can
stay out of the
shop and in the
fields.
We Salute All Our
Farm and Ranch
Friends During
National Ag Week
CROSS
PETROLEUM
Sidney, Montana
901 3 rd St. NE On The Truck By-Pass
433-4376