EAST LANSING, Mich. – Through a new partnership with CNH, Michigan State University (MSU) College of Agriculture and Natural Resources researchers and students will have access to the 145-horsepower New Holland T6.180 Methane tractor, considered the world’s first 100 percent methane-powered production tractor.

According to officials, this state-of-the-art tractor – powered by refined gases produced by the MSU anaerobic digester (used as part of the process to treat biodegradable waste and sewage sludge) – will be utilized for educational and research purposes at locations throughout campus, including the MSU Agronomy Farm, Dairy Cattle Teaching & Research Center, and south campus farms.

“We are grateful for this new partnership with CNH (based in New Holland, Pa.) as we continue advance groundbreaking, sustainable farming practices that will benefit our environment and our economy,” said George Smith, MSU AgBioResearch director.

“Usage of the New Holland T6.180 Methane tractor will provide our students and researchers with invaluable hands-on experience and the opportunity to explore the benefits of methane-powered technology,” he added.

The New Holland T6.180 Methane tractor was unveiled at the MSU Innovating with Dairy Symposium, held May 7 at the Henry Center for Executive Development and the MSU Dairy Cattle Teaching & Research Center.

“Wei Liao, a professor and the director of MSU Anaerobic Digestion Research and Education Center, is a leader in agricultural renewable energy solutions. His stature in the field and his connections mean that MSU’s commitment to providing a research test bed for this work is widely known in the industry.

“When CNH learned about MSU’s anaerobic digester and our plans to build a new dairy cattle teaching and research center to help the industry innovate for the future, they became interested in learning more about how their technologies could add value to this mission,” he said.

He added, “CNH already has an existing partnership with the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources and AgBioResearch, so the conversation about the New Holland T6.180 Methane tractor was a natural fit. CNH saw an opportunity for the tractor to be used in real-world situations beyond the dairy farm.

“MSU plans to use the tractor in a variety of settings, providing CNH with real-world usage data that can help inform dealers about how to communicate the tractor’s benefits to farmers,” he said. “Additionally, since the tractor is the first of its kind in Michigan, CNH and MSU collaborated to do safety and practice training with MSU farm managers and CNH dealers to help further the education of the new technology.”

Sean Dorosz, CNH’s New Holland North American Medium Tractor product marketing manager, told Farm World, “We had the first concept prototype in 2013; however, it took a lot of development, iterative improvements (repeated cycles of planning, implementation, and evaluation), and testing in real customer’s farms before we were fully-production ready. This intensive development for production took around five years.”

Officials said the key benefits of the New Holland T6.180 Methane Tractor are sustainability, energy self-sufficiency and cost efficiency.

“The tractor produces 98 percent less overall emissions, compared to European Union (EU) Stage V emission limits (for off-highway diesel engines, tightening restrictions on non-road engines and equipment, including those used in construction and agriculture) and also achieves a 10-15 percent reduction in CO2 emissions when using biomethane,” MSU officials said in a May 7 statement. “By using biomethane from biodigesters or compressed natural gas (CNG), farmers can become energy self-sufficient.

“The (New Holland) T6.180 Methane tractor offers the same power, torque and durability as its diesel counterpart, but with an estimated 30-percent reduction in running costs,” the statement added.

Dorosz said, “The (New Holland) T6.180 Methane tractor results from our pioneering work on the use of fuels through New Holland’s Clean Energy Leader strategy. We are excited for this partnership with MSU for students and researchers to gain first-hand experience with alternative fuels across their campus facilities.”

Under the terms of the partnership with CNH, MSU College of Agriculture and Natural Resources will have cost-free access to the New Holland T6.180 Methane tractor for one year, creating opportunities for students, researchers and the public to see the end-to-end methane tractor at work in the field.

“CNH is dedicated to advancing innovation in sustainable practices,” Dorosz said. “We believe that students are our future leaders of agriculture, and that it’s vital we provide them hands-on learning experiences.”

He said, “The New Holland Methane tractor is approximately $15,000 to $20,000 more than its diesel equivalent. The benefit to farmers is a full circle system on their dairy farm. Cows eat the crop; the cow waste produces fuel to power the tractor, and that in turn helps grow future crop for the cows to eat.”

In addition, he said, “There some other benefits of this tractor for our non-agricultural customers, which may be an interesting point of view: landfill sites that produce and sell methane today can use this tractor to mow grass on the properties; county or cites with methane-powered vehicles (buses, etc.) already can use this tractor to maintain county and city parks, and playing fields (i.e., baseball, soccer, football, field hockey); and airports with methane-powered vehicles today (shuttle buses, etc.) can use this tractor to mow grass and clear snow from the runways.”

When asked how this tractor will benefit farmers in the long run, Smith said, “This tractor would allow a farmer to utilize a byproduct of agricultural waste as fuel and potentially operate more sustainably, using their resources.

“As the country’s first land-grant institution and a trusted partner in the agriculture community in Michigan and beyond, MSU’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, AgBioResearch, and MSU Extension are committed to testing solutions that can help farmers move into the next generation of agriculture, and enhance the efficiency and sustainability of their operations,” he added.

“The agriculture industries rely on us for unbiased, objective information, so we’re pleased to have the opportunity to utilize this new technology on our operations,” he said.