Cantwell tours McKay Seed Co. in Moses Lake
Senator reviews production of seed oil for biodiesel fuel
MOSES LAKE — U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell made an appearance Friday in Moses Lake, taking a tour of the McKay Seed Company and meeting with management to discuss the production of biodiesel fuel.
On the tour, Cantwell was shown the process for crushing canola seed into oil for use in biodiesel fuel production. She mentioned that one of the main purposes of the trip was to see what a small seed manufacturing plant like McKay Seed could provide in being a leader in the production of biodiesel fuel.
During the last year and a half, McKay Seed spent time researching and developing ideas on the production of biodiesel fuel. Since the summer of 2005, the company has been supplying Seattle Biodiesel with crude canola oil which was then refined and sold as biodiesel in Seattle.
McKay Seed has been in Moses Lake since 1992, contracting and supplying small grain seed to local farmers. The company started in Almira in 1982.
Director of sales at McKay Seed, Adrian Higginbotham, would not comment on how much canola oil the company has produced for Seattle Biodiesel in the last couple of months. Higginbotham did say McKay Seed is the first integrated production system on the West Coast for refining canola oil and turning it into biodiesel.
Higginbotham thought meeting with Cantwell was a positive step in the right direction, describing the senator as knowledgeable about agriculture and passionate about renewable energy sources.
After a year of record level gas prices, legislators are looking to alternative fuels.
Biodiesel is a mix of vegetable oil and methanol produced when glycerol is separated from fat or vegetable oil, leaving behind methyl esters (the chemical name for biodiesel) and glycerol (used in soaps and other products).
After the tour Cantwell said she was most impressed with the lower temperature, negative five degrees, with which canola oil can be utilized and the higher yield it produces compared to soybean oil. McKay Seed manager Donald Sloan said in comparison soybean oil shipped from the Midwest gels at 30 degrees. The difference allows biodiesel to be utilized at colder temperatures.
Biodiesel fuel is said to be better for the environment as it is made from renewable sources and has lower emissions compared to petroleum diesel. As it can be made in the U.S. from renewable sources such as seeds, some believe it may decrease the nation's dependence on foreign oil and help local economies. Currently, McKay Seed does not have the crusher or refining equipment to produce crude canola oil on a large scale.
In order to obtain the equipment, McKay Seed would have to contract a price with growers that would be high enough to get the acres needed to supply oil seed crop, Sloan said.
Some of the challenges ahead that Higginbotham foresees is looking at feed stock quality issues and how to utilize byproducts from the biodiesel fuel such as glycerol.
There is a market for glycerol but it is still five years out, Higginbotham said.