Howdy from Texas

mikeyee · Oct 25, 2009

Now before I start with my introduction, I must say that I am very impressed with the friendliness of the forum and the professionalism that is everywhere. I hope to learn more from everyone and to be a contributing member of this great forum community.

My name is Michael Yee and I just turned 24. I am a senior in chemical engineering at University of Texas at Austin and also work part time with my own business recycling vegetable oil with UT. I've been working with bio-diesel for over 2 years now and have made a ton of progress (built my own big refinery, collection system, paperwork/research, contracts/insurance) What got me interested in farming is the fact that growing fuel is an untapped market and important task which I hope to help our future and nation.

To start off my undertaking, I bought a used tractor on an auction house for 1300$. The tractor is a Yanmar YM2010 with 900 hrs on it. The people said I got a steal and after much research (always go in with a budget/goal of undercutting) it was a good investment.

I have around 200 acres on lease to grow bio-diesel (the plan is first rapeseeds then jatropha) and started to run the logistics of the operation to do such a feat. I am a greenhorn of this trade but will learn really fast (I mean an asian guy driving a 2500HD diesel truck +owning a tractor, I think I'm one in a million in the usa haha). The land that is leased to me is in east texas currently where switch grass is high and chinese tallows are pretty common. I have a compact tractor without any accessories but some input on clearing and cultivating would greatly be appreciated!

Pictures:
1. my tractor
2. me at UT doing my work
3. me (left) with my world poker champ johnny tamayo !

Thomas · Oct 25, 2009

Welcome to TBN.

EddieWalker · Oct 25, 2009

Welcome to TBN.

Its in interesting goat that you have for yourself, and one that has allot of challenges. The biggest problem that I see is how much energy it will take to plant and harvest your crop, and then refine it. With ethonal, it takes more energy to create a sub standard fuel, then it creates. The reason I call it sub standard, is that it's inferior to gasoline. Less power and fuel economy.

New technology has to start somewhere, and it's just a matter of time until an alternative to fossil fuel is discovered. Maybe you'll come up with it.

Good luck,
Eddie

two_bit_score · Oct 25, 2009

Welcome, Mike! We should always belooking for viable alternatives for the way we do things. Good luck on your project.

I know that you must have thought through some other alternative fuels before getting into bio diesel. What others did you consider and why was biodiesel your ultimate choice?

Maybe you can get another section of this forum going dedicated to alternative fuels.

Egon · Oct 25, 2009

Good afternoon and welcome.

I posted this morning but it would appear my post did not post?

On the equipment needs you may have to do quite a bit more planning. Namely, cultivation, seeding, fertilizing, harvesting, handling, transportation, and storage.

Your present tractor may be too small to cover the necessary ground given the agricultural windows allowed. For example, if the standing Canola ripens and dries out to much many of the seeds will fall out when hit by the harvest equipment. Your tractor may do OK for a small experimental start.

The jatropha is not native and may require special permits and different harvest methods???

Methods of land preparation for canola using larger equipment would probably involve spraying with roundup, then a chisel plow or disk followed by harrowing.

With your tractor; a two bottom 16" plow, then an 8 ft. disk and then harrowing would probably be the method. Be prepared to spend days talking to yourself on the tractor and evenings putting ice packs on your back!

You may need to be licensed to spray the roundup but that varies from locality to locality.

Contracting the work out may be an option as the cost of all the equipment for a proper job may be prohibitive at startup.

Start hanging around implement dealers to get an idea of whats all involved and how available it is in your area.

Note: My little bit of very outdated knowledge was come by way up North in Alberta, Canada.

Best of luck or should I say "Plan well and you will have Luck"!

mikeyee · Oct 25, 2009

I have to agree with eddie that ethanol is known to be energy ineffective but that is also depending on what methods/effective the machinery is and the crop yield. I have read a lot of both sides and from experiments have come around +25% or -25% effective which are very small margins to begin with.

I looked at biomass which you can harness natural gas from and methane but that is also very costly to do and the yield in cost is very small since natural gas is very cheap at the moment and will be for a while.

Solar is not very effective in the first place because the panel is 1% effective and would have to work 100 years to pay back the energy it used in the first place.

Bio-diesel is something that on paper can work depending on what crops you use to make it from. There are crops like soybeans which isn't efficient to crops like jatropha (requires no fertilizer and irrigation) which are ridiculously efficient to the upwards of 200-300%. Processing bio-diesel unlike ethanol does not require distillation if done properly since the difference of the oil to water is substantial in specific gravity (1 to .85).

@ Egon: Thank you for your input and I'll start on looking for those pieces of equipment. I know that this is a very hard undertaking but that has never stopped me since its a challenge. Jatropha will be harvested similar to pecan trees with a shaker and a seed hopper. Those suckers are enormous and I will have to find a seed extruder/crusher to extract oil which is also hard to find it seems.
That would be nice to have a renewable energy section!

Thanks all for welcoming me

brin · Oct 25, 2009

Mike I sure hope you are the one that finds the solution that takes us off being dependant on foreign oil and reap the rewards....welcome big time...

streamin · Oct 25, 2009

welcome to TBN. I hope your bio diesel does good, we need more people like you.

mikeyee · Oct 25, 2009

hahaha thanks folks!

If you are interested in some I can arrange you to try some out in a month. I right now sell it to a construction company and to capital metro in Austin but will start to have extra (we call it leakage in business)

What pains me is the fact that each diesel gallon I make of bio-diesel, I have to pay 37 cents in fuel taxes and it keeps getting higher. The government takes over a year to give me back my rebate which makes it also a pain. Almost every trucker/construction/farmer I've talked to wanted to help out and it seems that once I can get this agriculture start up and running; then it could be growing big.

I have to try afterall, even if I fail.

sedit qui timuit ne non succederet.
He who feared he would not succeed sat still.

jimmyj · Oct 26, 2009

Welcome Mike. I love the quote in your last post. Keep us informed on your project, it is very interesting. I can't wait to see what your assessment is of the cost of creating the energy.

Jim