Student making strides with farm-based biodiesel

By DANIEL PERSON Chronicle Staff Writer

A Belgrade high school student isn’t just relying on his science fair project to win him honors, which it’s already done. He’s hoping it will power the family farm.

Will Wright, 15, is in his third year of developing biodiesel technology, and his laboratory has been his uncle’s 2,600-acre ranch north of Bozeman. His latest contraption, which won him second runner-up in the Montana State Science Fair in April and sent him to Atlanta to compete nationally, has the Wrights hoping they can power the farm entirely with oil seed grown on the farm.

A distinguishing aspect of Wright’s invention from other biodiesel processes, he says, is that his makes fuel continuously, as much as a gallon an hour in his prototype. Many biodiesel processors are what he called “batch processors,” with which the farmer must make fuel one batch at a time. That costs time out in the fields, Wright said. His invention allows farmers n or anyone else who wants to make biodiesel for that matter n to simply make sure all the ingredients are there and let the machine do the rest.

“All the farmer has to do is maintain it,” Wright said.

Wright said his goal is to give farmers an efficient way to make their own fuel with crops grown on their farm. He’s not unique in that sense. Biodiesel has become a buzz-word as the United States has become wary of the greenhouse gases produced by burning petroleum and the reliance on foreign countries to supply that petroleum.

Even in the high school science fair world, biodiesel research is widespread, he said. In Atlanta, where 1,500 students from across the country competed, Wright said there were about 15 other biodiesel projects.

“That’s a lot,” he said.

But Wright said his was the only to look at the prospects of making fuel right there on the farm for personal consumption, and he hopes his technology will make homemade biodiesel n rather than mass produced fuel n a more accessible option for America’s farms.

“The idea would be to make a processor that can sit behind the barn and only runs when it needs to,” he said. “It doesn’t make sense to have the oil shipped in if you can have your own fuel there.”

Bruce Wright n Will Wright’s uncle n said he is already using some of the diesel in his farm equipment. His farm produces wheat, barley, oats, hay, sunflowers and camelina. In a typical year, he said, he will use between 8,000 and 10,000 gallons of diesel. He said that “on a farm-to-farm basis,” biodiesel has “quite a bit of potential.”

He said he and Will are making plans to incrementally increase the scale of Will’s processor this summer, and one day hopes to produce all of his fuel from the camelina and canola he grows on his farm.

Also this summer, Will Wright hopes to get a patent for his machine.

Wright doesn’t consider biodiesel the silver bullet for U.S. energy needs, he said, but it can be part of the solution.

“The final solution will be a combination of biodiesel, ethanol,” he said. “And petroleum fuel too.”

Daniel Person can be reached at dperson@dailychronicle.com or 582-2665.

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