Safflowers harvested for biofuels research

KAYSVILLE — The blue harvester roared to life and began driving forward, its front blade slicing dried safflower stems, which were carried into the machine's depths by a conveyor belt.

Inside the machine, the safflower heads were reduced to chaff and seeds — seeds that researchers at Utah State University hope to convert to biodiesel fuel at a profit.

The test plot of ground where the seeds were harvested Wednesday is designed to mimic the side of Utah highways, which could be used to grow safflowers instead of the grasses that the Utah Department of Transportation pays $1.6 million a year to mow.

Dallas Hanks, one of the researchers on the project, envisions using vacant open space along roadways and near airports around the United States to grow the safflowers, an oilseed cousin of the thistle.

It's part of a program called Freeways to Fuel sponsored by UDOT and the National Biodiesel Board. USU has formed an alliance with other land-grant universities to conduct similar research.

Ralph Whitesides, a weed scientist at USU and Hanks' co-researcher, said safflower doesn't affect the food vs. fuel debate that surrounds other crops, such as corn and soybeans.

"This is working land that is not currently used for agricultural production," Whitesides said.

The trick is funding.

With $78,000 in initial funding, Hanks has conducted three years of research on oilseed feedstocks. In 2007, a planting of canola seeds on the west side of I-15 in Kaysville failed to produce a significant yield, Whitesides said. But the spring 2009 test planting of safflowers near the Utah Botanical Center, also in Kaysville, yielded knee-high plants with seeds larger than a sunflower nut.

"The plants should be twice as tall," Hanks said.

With soil aeration and more biosolids as fertilizer, the plants could reach their potential, he said, adding that his research is already successful.

Hanks said he expects to know in the next few weeks how profitable his small crop would be, leading, he hopes, to a larger crop in the future.

For $50,000, his research could be completed, Hanks said.

In spring 2010, Hanks plans to use 200 acres of vacant land in Salt Lake City, located south of the Salt Lake City International Airport, and the site of a future wastewater treatment plant.

Salt Lake County has started identifying idle land and open space throughout the county that could be converted to agriculture, said Kerri Nakamura, adviser to Salt Lake County Councilman Jim Bradley.

Since 2006, Salt Lake County has been acquiring open space through a $48 million bond and now has a sizable land bank, said Julie Peck-Dabling, the county's open space and urban farming coordinator.

The potential for Hanks or urban farmers to utilize idle land is an exciting one for Salt Lake County, because the county has to pay to maintain the land it has purchased, Peck-Dabling said.

UDOT could realize savings as well, Hanks said. For every mile the state currently mows along the sides of its highways, the state would need to harvest 700 to 800 pounds of safflower seed, which is below the normal yield for Western drylands, he said.

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