Madrid farmer turning switchgrass into biofuel

MADRID — Farmer Thomas E. Lee is keeping warm with what he grows.

Mr. Lee has been growing switchgrass — identified by the U.S. Department of Energy as a crop with excellent biomass potential — for several years, planting more annually for a total of 25 acres.

"I'm trying to find out if people are interested in burning grass and giving them an option," he said.

Last year, Mr. Lee bought machinery that allows him to turn the switchgrass — cut and baled and then ground — into large pellets.

"They look a lot and burn a lot like charcoal briquettes," he said. "I've been burning them in my wood stove in the shop. It burns real well. It throws a lot of heat. I have no way of accurately measuring how much heat there is."

Mr. Lee is branching out into the commercial market, offering the briquettes for sale at $4 for a 40-pound bag. So far, he's sold 1 ton to a Canadian interested in buying a similar machine and has given away a lot of samples.

"Most people who have tried them have been favorable," he said. "It's a relatively small-volume machine. That might be a drawback if I develop a market."

The price of Mr. Lee's briquettes is competitive with wood pellets. Summerhaven in Potsdam was selling a 40-pound bag of pellets Friday for $7. Curran Renewable Energy, Massena, sells wood pellets for $225 a ton, which comes to about $4.50 per bag.

The switchgrass briquettes aren't right for everyone. They won't burn in a regular pellet stove because they're too big for most augers, but will work in a regular wood-burning stove or outdoor furnace.

"One drawback is there's more ash. I don't think it's going to be very popular with parlor stoves," Mr. Lee said. "This has a real distinct smell. I don't think it's particularly unpleasant."

Mr. Lee is set up to store no more than 7 to 8 tons.

"With this machine, I can push through about 12 bales in an hour. That's about four to five hundred pounds," Mr. Lee said. "There's not much weight loss."

The $35,000 machine he bought from inventors in Pennsylvania runs off the power takeoff of a tractor, so he's not looking for big production, just another way to advance a greener lifestyle.

Several St. Lawrence County residents have purchased smaller pelletizers — available for about $4,500 — and are trying their hand at growing grass for heat, said Brent A. Buchanan, agricultural issue leader with Cornell Cooperative Extension.

"It's a doable kind of thing," Mr. Buchanan said. "You do need the wherewithal to process the switchgrass before you get it to the pellet stage."

One Flackville resident is pelletizing various organic materials, including fallen leaves.

"There's a lot of folks with some interest," Mr. Buchanan said. "Tom's the furthest along when it comes to switchgrass as a biofuel. People have planted it for other purposes as well. It tends to stand up so it makes for significant animal cover."

No one is producing pelleted grass yet in Jefferson County, but there are test plots of switchgrass, including one in Henderson.

"We put it on some challenging ground," said Michael E. Hunter, field crops educator with Cornell Cooperative Extension. "We're going to see how it does on shallow ground."