Engineering Biodiesel in America

In the past several years, we have all witnessed the extreme rise in the price of oil, and we have seen what impact it has had on gas prices and everything else related to transportation.  With this intense climb in oil and gas prices, we became more aware of the need for an alternative, reusable energy solution.  While the push has been made to develop cars that run on electricity and E85, another solution that holds immense possibilities is the development of biodiesel.  Agricultural engineering plays an immense role in the development of such a fuel source, both from the research and development side of things, as well as from the production of the crops used.  In order for this field to continue to advance, society needs to more fully understand and grasp the concept of renewable biofuels and be willing to take the necessary steps to make such an energy source a more common and effective reality.

What is Biodiesel?

Biodiesel is a fuel solution that can be produced completely domestically.  It is a renewable fuel source that is manufactured from vegetable oils, fatty acids, and even recycled grease from restaurants.  This alternative to petroleum-based fuels has similar physical properties to regular petroleum fuels, but is non-toxic and biodegradable, as well as being cleaner burning than regular diesel fuel.

Advantages of Biodiesel

As already mentioned, biodiesel is a renewable energy source that can be produced completely domestically, reducing the country’s reliance on the importing of foreign oil.  This means that our nation’s own farmers would be responsible for giving us a reliable energy solution, which would help to bolster the United States’ economy while reducing money being spent on foreign energy sources.  Being a cleaner burning fuel than regular petroleum diesel also means that the use of biodiesel can greatly reduce the omissions of greenhouse gasses. 

B20, a blend of 20% biodiesel and 80% petroleum diesel, is the most commonly used blend of biodiesel in the United States.  B20 avoids the potential cold weather issues of B100 (100% biodiesel with no petroleum diesel blended in) while still providing benefits.  One advantage of B20 is that it is already compatible with most diesel engines as well as storage and distribution equipment.  While the potential for less energy per gallon does exist with biodiesel as compared to petroleum diesel, most users have reported no noticeable difference in fuel economy between the two.

Disadvantages of Biodiesel

The development of biodiesel is a very energy-intensive process, which leads to high costs throughout the process.  High costs have deterred mainstream industrialization in many cases.  Some would say that the biodiesel industry is not worth the cost because of the high development expense compared to the smaller amount of energy that biofuel provides compared to petroleum based fuels.  Another fear of biodiesel production, as pointed out by Kyle in the comment below, is that the production of tis biodiesel requires the use of crops that could also be used for food sources.  If too great an amount of these crops is removed from the food industry for the sake of biodiesel development, market prices of food and food crops could be driven higher.  

What is the Next Step?

With B20 already being commonly produced, it has become a major export, mainly to Europe.  The United States itself needs to embrace biodiesel in order to take the next steps towards renewable energy.  U.S. consumers need to be made more aware of this solution, and its implementation in domestic infrastructure should be increased.  The ability to effectively and economically distribute biodiesel is also a point that needs attention.  So far, biodiesel is transported and distributed by truck, barge, and rail line from production to retailers and end users.  The more economical choice of pipeline distribution for biodiesel is still in the experimental stages of development.

Going beyond the use of B20 is the development the development of effective and efficient B100.  At this point the use of B100 has been restricted to professionally fleets prepared to deal with the concerns that face the product.  Such concerns include low temperature gelling of the fuel, incompatibility with many current diesel engines, lower energy content per gallon, microbial contamination, and increased nitrogen oxide emissions.  These are all issues that can eventually be dealt with, but engineers are going to need time and resources for such a process.  To  continue developing this energy solution, America needs to know about its benefits and how to help take the next step in achieving the goals of a clean, renewable energy solution.

AGCO 9250 Dynaflex Draper Header

Last summer, AGCO and Gleaner tested and officially released their new Super Seven series of combines.  But the combines were not the only new release that they were excited about.  They also released a newly developed header called the Model 9250 Dynaflex draper header for both Gleaner and Massey Ferguson brand combines.  They boast that the new draper header design will give farmers the kind of volume, control, and efficiency that they could not previously achieve with headers using rotors and cleaning systems.

AGCO 9250 Dynaflex Draper Header

The new AGCO header will come in widths up to 40 feet (12.19 meters) for the maximum cut width and volume intake.  The header also uses a draper belt conveying system to move the crop to the center of the header, where it is then smoothly taken into the feeder house in a preformed mat using the feed auger.  A clean integrated combine mounting system bypasses the need for complex hydraulics, motors, and hoses.  These all work together to reduce the amount of space between components of the header and make sure that the entire process of feeding crop is as controlled by the reel as possible to minimize losses and bunching.

The biggest new development seen in the Dynaflex header is, as the name implies, a flexible cutter bar.  The cutter bar is controllable from inside the cab of the combine.  Hydraulic lift arms are mounted on the cutter bar every 30 inches, each arm having the capability for a maximum height displacement of 8 inches.  Each header has up to 6 potentiometers to relay the contour of the ground, which the combine’s operator can then use to adjust the height of each segment of the cutter bar to the desired specifications.

Notable Competitors’ Models

This technology is by no means entirely new to the field.  Other versions of this header have already been produced in the past.  In 2007, MacDon released its FD70 Flex Draper header.  The model featured 3 flexible sections of the frame of the header.  It also had automatic sensors capable of adjusting the height of each section to conform as close as possible to the ground, which it called its Float Optimizer system.

Another version that has been around is the 88C Series Floating Cutter bar Draper Header.  This header features a lateral and vertical leaf spring suspension system that allows the header to contour to the ground and float freely of the combine.  This model of header comes in sizes that max out at 45 feet, which is wider than the largest AGCO header size.  However, the New Holland header only allows for 4 to 6 inches of vertical float distance, as opposed to the 8 inches offered by the AGCO model.

Case IH has the 2010 model as well as the new 3020 model.  Both headers are smaller than their competitors, the 2010 coming as large as 30 feet wide, and the 3020 coming as wide as 35 feet.  Both models also feature augers as opposed to draper feeding systems.  The 2010 uses a rigid auger while the 3020 has a flexible auger.

John Deere unveiled a prototype for a Flex Draper header of their own a couple years ago, but have yet to be able to develop a final product.

What is an Ag Engineer?

When I was deciding what career I wanted to pursue in my life, a very wise man once told me that there are three fields that would never run out of demand for work: military, healthcare, and agriculture.  The world is a dangerous place and will always need defending, people will always need healing from illness and disease, and the world will always need to eat.  With this advice in mind, I ultimately chose to pursue a career in agricultural engineering.  But just exactly what is agricultural engineering?

Agricultural engineering is a field that connects science and technology to agricultural production and processing.  It takes all the skills connected with mechanical, electrical, civil, and chemical engineering, and combines them with knowledge of agriculture ranging from animal and plant biology to basic principles of raising crops and livestock.

Agricultural engineers are also charged with many different tasks.  One of the jobs that comes to mind most quickly probably is the designing of agricultural machinery and equipment, but that is not all they do.  Ag engineers also evaluate resource management, including land and water use.  They look at soil management and conservation as well as climatology.  They help with waste management, including animal waste, agricultural residues, and fertilizer runoff.  And agricultural engineers also examine the food production process from seeding and tillage, to harvesting, to livestock production, to food engineering and the processing of crops and all other agricultural products.  They develop and supervise the construction of ways to store crops and house livestock.  They also plan and supervise the implementation of irrigation and water control systems.  They also assess the impact of agricultural practices and processes on the environment and interpret their findings to help implement improved practices in each process.

The specific strain of agricultural engineering that I am looking to get into is test engineering.  As a test engineer, my responsibilities would include, as the name implies, the testing of new equipment to make sure it is fit for use in real world applications.  When new products are designed, and the first prototypes are built, test engineers take a look at the products and put them to work.  Through any number of tests, ranging from laboratory tests, to computer software tests, to field tests actually using the products out in their intended environment, test engineers determine how efficient the product is and how much wear and tear the equipment can take before it would break.  If it does break under normal conditions or if it is not efficient enough, then the test engineers go back and take a look at how and why those things happened and what ways can it be improved.

As you can see from the extensive list of responsibilities shared by agricultural engineers, they are very important in the process of producing food and products to feed and clothe the world as well as the countless other uses for agricultural products.  It is their job to make sure all processes are as efficient and as effective as possible, being able to produce massive amounts of product with minimal losses or cost and time constraints.  Without agricultural engineers, the development of food and other agricultural products would be much less efficient and feeding the world would be that much harder than it already is.