By LINDA McGURK
Indiana Correspondent CHALMERS, Ind. — When the BioTown Technology Suite in Reynolds, Ind., broke ground last month, this town of about 500 residents moved one step closer to its goal of becoming self-sufficient with energy.
By combining three different technologies, the plant will convert municipal and agricultural waste to electricity, fertilizers, thermal energy and biodiesel. This means many of the area’s farmers may stand to gain from the project.
John Rayman and Matt Holderly of Chalmers, Ind., are two entrepreneurial young farmers who hope to capitalize on the buzz around biofuels and renewable energy in Indiana in general and Reynolds – a model community promoted as BioTown, USA, by the Indiana State Department of Agriculture – in particular.
The two lifelong friends have just started a joint venture to provide custom baling for White County farmers who want to sell agricultural waste like corn stalks and wheat and rye stubble to the Technology Suite.
“The technology is completely new to this area, so that’s going to be a bit of a challenge. But we’re pretty excited about it,” said Rayman, who graduated from Ivy Tech Community College in Lafayette last year with degrees in business management and marketing.
The business, Bale Power, is still in its infancy, but Rayman and Holderly have already invested in new tractors and a baler, and will start their baling operation on the 2,500 acres they farm together with their fathers.
“Next month will be a really busy month, since we’ve got a lot of work lined up before planting,” said Holderly, a 2003 Purdue University graduate in farm management.
The Technology Suite, scheduled to produce electricity by this fall and be fully operational next year, is currently stockpiling feedstocks. Considering that the plant will provide energy for the entire town of Reynolds, Bale Power should have plenty of room to grow.
Once online, the plant will use processes known as gasification and fast pyrolysis to break down the biomass, and a method called anaerobic digestion to break down human and animal waste.
In addition to buying crop waste from local grain farmers, the plant will use manure from hog producers in the area.
Holderly and Rayman have researched and experimented with a number of baling techniques, and said they plan to offer different options depending on the farmers’ needs. Ideally, they would cut and bale the stalks right after the combine harvests the grain, before the stalks start to decay.
According to their conservative estimates, they’ll be able to bale 2-4 tons of corn stalks and 4-6 tons of rye stubble per acre.
“I think rye will be a big part of it, since it gets more tonnage,” said Rayman.
Holderly agreed and added that baling also can be beneficial to those growing corn-on-corn, since it both takes care of the problem of excessive residue, and renders extra income from the stalks.
The business has generated interest among farmers in the area, although some are concerned that baling the residue will require them to replenish nutrients in the soil.
But Holderly said selling farm waste could still be a way to boost profits.
“There’s a lot of material on the fields,” Holderly said. “By baling it, you can reduce tillage and save fuel, time and labor. There are a lot of points to take into consideration.”
He also said some might prefer a rotational system. In that case, the residue would be baled one year and left on the field the next.
The business partners are still working on pricing their services, but said they will probably charge a per-bale-cost for baling and an hourly fee for mowing stalks and picking up residue. And they have no doubt their venture is a win-win situation.
“It’s beneficial to everybody,” said Rayman. “The farmers will make money and we’ll make money,” added Holderly.
For more information about BioTown and the Technology Suite, visit www.biotownusa.com |
