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MO oil company launches biomass project

A Missouri-based energy company has launched a biomass division expected to create up to 27-hundred new jobs through next-generation, farmer-grown, renewable energy.

MFA Oil – in partnership with Texas-based Aloterra Energy – has created MFA Oil Biomass after several years of researching numerous energy crops. More than 200 farmers have committed to growing miscanthus, a perennial crop, for conversion first into energy pellets for power generation and then other energy products, such as ethanol.  Three geographical areas have been chosen for the project:  central Missouri, southwest Missouri and northeast Arkansas.

Jared Wilmes is MFA’s Biomass project coordinator.

“There’s been a lot of discussion about this in the past but there’s never been a company that’s really been able to aggregate everything together to work with the farmer, to work with the end-user and to kind of make it all work from the logistical standpoint,” Wilmes tells Brownfield.

The end users include farmers themselves for on-farm energy use, power companies, the University of Missouri’s biomass boiler, and the city of Columbia which has a self-imposed 15 percent renewable energy mandate.

But the project is built on the USDA’s BCAP incentive program that pays farmers to establish biomass crops. House Republicans have greatly reduced BCAP funding in their budget proposal but it remains alive in President Obama’s budget. MFA says they’ll know in two weeks if their designated areas are selected. Either way, MFA says they’re moving forward because there is growing demand and a growing need for biomass energy.

MFA president Jerry Taylor says the goal is to produce cellulosic ethanol – which the federal renewable fuels standard, the RFS2 calls for – and a variety of energy products from miscanthus.  He says the BCAP program is meant to help farmers meet the growing demands and its part of the need to break the nation’s dependency on foreign oil.  And, then, there’s the climate debate.

Taylor says miscanthus sequesters 55 times the amount of carbon it takes to plant and harvest it and at worst it is a “carbon neutral fuel.”

“That is a significant improvement,” says Taylor, “That’s why these utilities have to burn it.  It is a ‘carbon neutral’ because of the amount the plant sequesters.  When you pull coal out of the ground you’re doing nothing but releasing carbon – It was sequestered long ago and you’re releasing it into the atmosphere.  By growing this (miscanthus) crop annually, you actually capture that much carbon every year.”

Taylor tells Brownfield that MFA believes carbon markets will develop in the next 10 years.

Scott Coye-Huhn is Director of Business Development with Aloterra Energy. He tells Brownfield,“One of the things that’s been stopping biomass has been: How do you get a crop that has enough tonnage to make sense for the farmer to make money? None of the (other biomass) crops at this point have been able to do that.” Coye-Huhn adds that, “Miscanthus can do that but miscanthus has been too expensive and there have not been the supplies available in the United States up until very recently. We have the supplies and we have the equipment and we have the price down, beaten down as far as we can. We’ve made it affordable for the farmer and the BCAP is going to make that possible. So, this is the year where this has all come together.”

AUDIO: Jerry Taylor (9 min. MP3)

AUDIO: Jared Wilmes (7 min. MP3)

AUDIO: Scott Coye-Huhn (8 min. MP3)

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  This is just more valuable farm land to be used to grow energy-related crops instead of food.

  We should be looking for ways to create energy that does not require reducing our ability to produce food for our nation.

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  Miscanthus does well on marginal and unproductive land. Also, if you use miscanthus to replace corn, at three times the gallons per acre, you have two reasons this energy crop will actually reduce the food v. fuel problem.

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  Actually, Miscanthus x giganteus,a purpose grown energy crop, lessens the pressure on food/feed crops. This is true because Miscanthus requires only one third the amount of land to produce the same amount of BTU as corn. In addition, Miscanthus can be productively grown on land that is not being utilized for corn or other cereal crops. With a far lesser need for fertilizer, Miscanthus further reduces agricultural/environmental demands. Miscanthus creates a better overall balance in agricultural crops available to farmers by introducing stable perennial yields with low inputs. It will enhance rural economies and the environment in general. The latter is true because of the carbon sequestration characteristics of Miscanthus, which are far higher than any other crop.

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  Scott seeing how you’re the owner of this company, answer me this, if your rhizome is supposed to be sterile, why then, would your company resort to this action:

  “In the event, giant miscanthus does escape, eradication studies indicate
  spring tillage followed by glyphosate application was successful in eliminating 95 percent of
  aboveground biomass after the first application (Anderson et al. 2011).”

  and treating problems that your product created on other people’s lands with this stuff because your plant’s genetics got out of hand – isn’t much of a selling point when trying to entice investors, or woo a nation – into jumping onto your bandwagon

  and if your crop does corrupt another farmer’s crop, what compensation will your company be offering the victim farmer(s)….or will you handle it as Monsanto has in the past….by suing the farmer whose crops got ruined by Monsanto’s predominant gene, because the farmer didn’t know his crop has been cross-contaminated prior to selling off their product.

  is there a notable increase in SUPERWEEDS that are associated with your product, as is case with other GMO plants….what long term testing have you done to make sure it doesn’t affect pollinators such as bees and other insects.

  And Tom….seeing how you’re the VP of OPS, don’t you two think you owe Debbie an apology for tag teaming you and Scott gave her when she was making an honest comment based on sustainability and food crops……

  I’ve been following how science has destroyed our food crops through the use GMO, creating serum components in the field, live viruses, in fact…then there’s the O&G industry that has corrupted our fields/air/water making the soil unfit to grow consumable goods….so again, I ask you BOTH…. what guarantees can you give us that your plant won’t create more problems than we are already dealing with, in our fields…..and why are you using a cloned plant in the first place…… I have many more questions, but haven’t the time or the space here to dally any longer…

  Supersnooper58

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