08/29/2008

News / Minnesota Labs Help Turn Crops, Farm Waste into New Products State-supported facilities bring prosperity to rural areas

Minnesota Labs Help Turn Crops, Farm Waste into New Products

State-supported facilities bring prosperity to rural areas

By Kathryn McConnell
Staff Writer

Waseca, Minnesota -- Farm commodities and wastes are being turned into new, profitable products marketed by innovative businesses in Minnesota thanks to assistance provided by three state-supported research laboratories.

The Agricultural Utilization Research Institute (AURI) labs offer entrepreneurs who have ideas for new products access to industry-standard testing equipment, technical assistance and business development advice.

They help companies develop such products as biogas, fertilizers, animal feeds, food ingredients and food-processing procedures.

Bio-based businesses "are creating jobs and generating millions of dollars in economic activity in often underserved areas of the state," Dan Lemke, AURI's spokesman, told America.gov.

With increased interest in "locally grown, environmentally friendly and natural products, the bio-based industry will only continue to grow," he said.
Alan Doering in lab (AURI)
AURI scientist Alan Doering works with one of his lab's compressors.

AURI has helped thousands of Minnesota businesses since it was established in the 1980s; at any given time, it has about 160 active projects.

"We are passionate about rural prosperity," AURI scientist Alan Doering said.

Doering works at AURI's laboratory in Waseca, a town of 9,700 in south-central Minnesota. He described how his lab helped a company turn nutrient-rich, powdery ash –- a byproduct of burning such biomass materials as corn cobs and wood chips to produce energy -- into dense pellets. Without being turned into pellets, ash is too fine to be applied directly to soil, but in pellets it serves as a good fertilizer.

Doering said the Waseca lab helps livestock farmers learn about "methane digesters," simple systems that convert organic farm matter into the energy source biogas.

With a digester, manure from cattle, swine or poultry can be collected from barn floors, separated from debris and piped into a covered temperature-controlled holding area. Inside, bacteria convert the waste’s acids into methane, or biogas, for powering a generator. Digesters do not produce earth-warming greenhouse gas emissions and help control farm odors. Effluent, or what is left over from the manure after the biogas is produced, can be used as fertilizer. Steam produced by the generator can be used to heat buildings

Another product AURI has helped a local company develop is a nonfood-grade, wheat-based bedding for horses. The bedding is low in dust, significantly reduces odor and is easer to clean from stalls than straw.

AURI is testing economical alternatives to livestock diets that are 100 percent maize by replacing a portion of the maize with glycerin, a byproduct of the ethanol industry.

AURI, which has received funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, also works with producer associations on industrywide studies of scientific and market issues.

Source: http://www.america.gov/st/econ-english/2008/August/20080828132948AKllennoCcM0.7123987.html?CP.rss=true

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