Montana’s fuel future in biodiesel. Sustainable Systems of Missoula Leads the Way

Duane L. Johnson of the Northwestern Ag Research Center spends quite a bit of time traveling around the state promoting biodiesel fuels and the production of oilseed crops as a way to help growers add value to their products and boost yields.

With diesel now going for $2.68 a gallon and oil selling at $62 a barrel, David Max, vice president of marketing for Sustainable Systems http://www.sustainablesystemsllc.com in Missoula, is no longer alone when pondering the nation’s energy questions.

What would happen, Max hypothetically asks, if the U.S. embarked on an Apollo-sized mission, but instead of aiming for the moon, it sought to create clean-burning and renewable fuels right here at home?

“When you see oilmen in the White House talking about renewable energy, you know the cows are about to come home,” Max said. “We should have embarked on this journey 10 to 20 years ago.”

The bio-fuel revolution may be coming to Montana at long last. One Colorado-based company is looking to build a fuel-grade processor near Havre while Cenex Harvest States is considering a 2-percent soy-blend in all its diesel fuels sold in Missoula.

Sustainable Systems, also based in Missoula, is completing renovations to its crushing and processing plant in Culbertson, located in northeastern Montana. Purchased from Montola Growers late last year, the facility could begin producing between 15 and 20 million gallons of seed-oil every year, once renovations are finished and farm contracts are signed.

By MARTIN J. KIDSTON – IR Staff Writer

Full Story: http://helenair.com/articles/2006/03/26/helena/a10032606_01.txt

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Ancient seeds, modern hope

By KRISTI ALBERTSON
The Daily Inter Lake

Local farmers experiment with camelina crops
“Make sure you have a roll of duct tape.”

That’s the advice Duane Johnson offered when Carter Fritz was getting ready to combine his camelina crop last summer. Johnson, superintendent of Montana State University’s Northwestern Ag Research Center in Creston, knew harvesting the plant’s tiny seeds would be no easy task.

It took a couple of tries, but Fritz, a longtime Flathead farmer, managed to combine his 10 acres of camelina using a 3/64 slotted screen. He never needed the duct tape.

Camelina, also called gold of pleasure, is the latest oilseed plant to reach Montana. It’s by no means new, however.

Full Story: http://www.dailyinterlake.com/articles/2006/03/26/business/bus01.txt