EVERETT — Snohomish County is getting out of the biofuels business, after low oil prices and emerging technologies dragged down its decade-long venture.
The county’s investment in heavy machinery was supposed to enlist local agriculture in an energy revolution, by turning canola and other crops into diesel. That equipment is now selling for pennies on the dollar.
A grain crusher and dryer sat idle at the county’s Cathcart public works site for three years. The county recently unloaded the dryer as surplus. Grant restrictions, for now, have prevented the county from doing the same with the crusher.
“I think it was a worthwhile experiment and the economy put it on hold for now,” County Executive Dave Somers said.
While the county may be pulling out of biofuels, serious academic and industry research continues locally into growing crops that can be converted to energy.
The county’s biofuels initiative was launched in 2005 under a previous executive administration. The county lined up federal and state grants, along with some of its own money, to buy a grain crusher and dryer in 2008. In all, about $1.4 million was invested.
The idea was to encourage local farmers to grow canola and extract biodiesel from its seed, boosting local cash crops while producing a cleaner energy source.
While the county did show that canola can be grown locally, the program wound up a money loser.
“We were successful in demonstrating that locally grown canola could be converted into biodiesel,” county solid waste director Matt Zybas said. “The price for fossil fuels, as we all know, dropped significantly.”
The price for a barrel of crude oil was about $44 late last week. That compares to a spike to more than $140 during the fall of 2008. The price consistently averaged near or above $80 per barrel —sometimes well above that— from 2010 through 2014.
Producing biodiesel from crushed canola seeds is far more expensive than purchasing petroleum products.
Western Washington’s wet weather also complicated the canola cultivation, which typically takes place in eastern parts of the state.
The setup at Cathcart included six holding silos that could store more than 300 tons of wet or dry grain. The dryer was able to process 15 tons of grain per hour and ran off methane from the old Cathcart landfill. The canola seed crusher could handle about 24 tons per day.
Early on in the project, the county had hoped that by 2014, it would be able to process enough canola seed to make 240,000 gallons of biodiesel for the diesel portion of its vehicle fleet. It never came close to that goal.
It produced a total of 1,700 gallons of biodiesel over about five years, Zybas said. That was less than 1 percent of the goal.
The equipment also was used to dry 2,100 tons of grain. That is less than one month’s work for the plant operating at peak capacity.
The county had trouble interesting outside partners in running the equipment. A local farmer leased the equipment in 2012, but soon after, the dryer and crusher went into disuse.
The county sold the grain dryer and related components for $42,500 in late September, Zybas said.
During the life of the project, it brought in about $17,700 in revenue and fees.
The canola venture was a centerpiece of Aaron Reardon’s economic development initiative while he was county executive.
County Councilman Brian Sullivan said he initially supported the venture, but, “I had second thoughts immediately.” He promoted biofuels as a state lawmaker. After he joined the County Council in 2008, it became apparent to him that biofuel was heading in new directions, such as using algae to make jet fuel.
“We’ve had a couple of Hail Marys to try and save it since 2008, but nothing ever came of it,” he said. “This was one of those things that government really needs to stay out of.”
The county can play a more valuable role in economic development by maintaining good roads and other infrastructure, as well as streamlining the permitting process, Sullivan said.
“It’s not our job to determine what a future market is,” he said.
Biofuels haven’t gone bust by any means.
“Industry in the long term is still very much interested,” Somers said.
That’s true. Academic and industry experts are exploring ways to turn other crops into energy. At a demonstration site near Stanwood, 95 acres of poplar trees are being grown as an energy source. Poplars are seen as having good potential because they grow fast and can thrive on land that’s unsuitable for other crops. Through chemical processes, the wood can be converted into liquid biofuels, such as gasoline, jet fuel or diesel.
The poplar project is overseen by Advanced Hardwood Biofuels Northwest, a consortium of businesses and universities from four states, including the University of Washington and Washington State University. The goal is to create a stable biofuels industry in the Pacific Northwest.
Patricia Townsend, a researcher with WSU’s Snohomish County Extension program, has been helping to lead the project.
“We’ve demonstrated that technically it’s feasible to grow these trees in a sustainable manner to make biofuels and other products that are currently made from petroleum,” Townsend said. “But it is challenging economically.”
They’re looking for supportive governmental policies as they navigate a new energy landscape. They’re a fledgling enterprise competing against the oil industry, which has been around for more than 100 years. Petroleum also is used to make an array of household items, including clothes, paints and plastic products.
“It’s important for people to know that even though there are failures out there, there are a lot of success stories and there is a lot of potential,” Townsend said.
Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465; nhaglund@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @NWhaglund.
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