We Plough the fields and Scatter

marriedtothesea.com

Seeing the picture of Canola reminded me of the vibrant yellow fields of Canola you see in many parts of Scotland, where it is grown for oil and as a crop rotation. Here in Oz, a Victorian farmer who uses his own farm crops to power his vehicles tells us how he's avoiding the surging cost of fuel.

Growing your own fuel is not such a ridiculous concept for Steven Hobbs, farmer working the land at Kaniva, eighty kilometres west of Dimboola near the Victorian/South Australian border. He's gone into production of his own bio-diesel fuel to beat the rising commercial fuel prices. "My experience began... five years ago when I was first exposed to the idea of growing bio-diesel as a farmer," he says. "Initially it started as a philosophical statement... I believe in farmers making themselves more sustainable."

The material Steven uses to produce his own fuel is found in his own backyard. "Being a farmer I actually already grow it. I grow canola... and traditionally [farmers have] sold it into... [the] human consumption market," he says.

Let's make fuel production a part of your crop rotation... it's just a matter of looking at an old idea in a new way...

But what is bio-diesel fuel? What are the advantages?

"Essentially bio-diesel is a modified vegetable oil. A chemical process that's used to remove the glycerol component from the molecule... essentially transforms the vegetable oil into a... renewable fuel... that has very much the same characteristics as conventional fossil diesel, except it has the advantages of reducing emissions up to 60 per cent. And it's also a renewable source of energy," he says.

Yet the idea of renewable energy is not new to Australian farmers. "It's not a new idea - every farmer in Australia used to do it, they used to allocate 25 per cent of their cropping area for oats to cut for horses. Horses were organic tractors, if you want to put it that way," he says.

The idea of using vegetable oil as fuel has its roots in Europe. German engineers have developed a dual tank system, where diesel or bio-diesel fuel is kept in the main tank and vegetable oil is kept in a second tank. The motor heats the vegetable oil for use and the driver can then switch between their main tank and the vegetable oil tank. "There are over five thousand cars in Germany running this two tank system," he says.

How hard is it to go through this process? "It's not that hard... it's not beyond the capacity of the person to be able to perform it..." he says.

For Steven, the current global trend upwards in fuel prices provides great incentive for Australian farmers to get in on the fuel market, and to help reduce fossil emissions contributing to the greenhouse effect.

"[Let's] make fuel production a part of your crop rotation... it's just a matter of looking at an old idea in a new way," he says.

One of our subcontractors recently retrofitted his drilling rig to run on biodiesel. I keep meaning to catch up with him to find out how it is going and where he buys his biodiesel. I have yet to notice it in my periodic trips to the bank emptying station to fill up the car. At work, our Risk Assessment expert told me that there are some health risks with biodiesel. Not sure what they are, but I am sure that in the scheme of things they are not too dangerous. And there is no tax (at this scale)!