DOVE CREEK, Colo.—The San Juan Bioenergy plant—which is grinding sunflower seeds to make food oil instead of automotive fuel as originally planned—could become an international model of entrepreneurial endeavor.
“There is a lot of interest in renewable-source energy,” said Nathan Morris, the plant’s chief technology officer. “People are passionate about the idea, but many don’t know how to take it to the next level.”
San Juan Bioenergy could fill that leadership gap, Morris said. Even before it squeezed its first drop of oil, the company had received letters and telephone inquiries about small-scale bioenergy projects in—among other places—Belize and Bolivia.
Production at San Juan Bioenergy started Saturday, Dec. 13, as the plant began to turn sunflower seeds into food oil. But one of these days the plant routinely will use seed stock to make items as diverse as stove pellets, livestock feed and synthetic gas to heat the plant and supply up to one-half its electrical needs, Morris said.
Biofuel is still an option, too, Morris said. It all depends on what the market demands.
“The flip of a switch will allow us to take available sources of feed stock to produce the most logical form of energy,” Morris said. “Our niche, our talent, is turn feed stock into the form of energy that makes most sense.”
In 2003, the San Juan Biodiesel Cooperative was scheduled to make biodiesel. But changing market conditions made food oil more attractive, and the cooperative became a for-profit venture under its current name in late 2006. Morris declined to reveal the sum of capital investment, but he allowed it was less than $10 million. He said private capital, a grant and bank loans figure in the amount.
The 10,000-square-foot plant, housed in two buildings, has the capacity to turn out 2.5 million gallons of oil a year. But initial production will be in the 3,000- to 4,000-gallon-a-day range, Morris said. Forty-four farmers grow seeds for San Juan Bioenergy. The drought-resistant sunflower was an ideal choice in the high desert around here where dryland farming predominates.
“We’d like to have 50,000 to 60,000 acres sown to oil-seed crops,” Morris said. “The use of canola, soy and safflower in the future is a possibility.”
San Juan Bioenergy already is looking toward second-generation oil stock from sources such as jatropha, a warm-weather plant, and algae, Morris said. Coincidentally, a Fort Collins firm is scheduled to start construction next year on a large-scale algae farm on the Southern Ute Indian Reservation near Ignacio. Company officials believe they may get 20 times more fuel per acre than from first-generation biofuel sources.
“If algae plays out to what is expected, it could be a game changer,” Morris said.
San Juan Bioenergy also is interested in biomass acquired from agricultural or forest operations, Morris said. Biomass wouldn’t produce oil, but it could be used for other products much like waste material from sunflower oil production can be a source of livestock food or high-BTU stove pellets.
The ability of San Juan Bioenergy to produce vaporized gas from seed hulls for heat and electricity also has stirred interest, Morris said. Gassification on the San Juan Bioenergy scale is not common, but is reserved for larger companies, he said.
“We hope to be a model for small businesses,” Morris said. “But it depends on the economy, and I don’t have a crystal ball.”
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