January 30, 2017

Farmers looking at on-farm ethanol plants

ST. LOUIS — A handful of farmers are not just raising the crops that can be used as biofuels. They’re also working on producing the fuel itself.

A Minnesota-based company is in the developmental stage of offering small-scale production of ethanol and other end-products right on the farm. Mark Gaalswyk of Easy Energy Systems describes the process by using a popular toy as an analogy.

“It’s a Lego concept,” Gaalswyk told farmers at the Family Farms Group annual winter conference here. “There are different parts of the process. If one part becomes obsolete, you can replace it with another part.” . . .