Seminar hopes to draw biodiesel info seekers

John Ousterhout mixes his experimental alternative fuel during a break in the Big Bend Community College small producer biodiesel seminar in July 2006. Council board member Bill Riley says the world has changed since the organization first began putting on its seminars, the latest of which takes place Saturday morning in the Huck Fuller Building on the Grant County Fairgrounds. Photo by Matthew Weaver/Columbia Basin Herald

by Matthew Weaver<br>Herald Senior Staff Writer
| March 28, 2008 9:00 PM

Big Bend council program evolves with world market

COLUMBIA BASIN - A local organization hopes to draw the curious to its biodiesel seminar taking place this weekend.

The Big Bend Economic Development Council biodiesel seminar meets 9 a.m. Saturday at the Huck Fuller Building, formerly the Grange Hall, on the Grant County Fairgrounds. The event is free to attend.

The event will run "until all the questions are answered," council board member Bill Riley said. Lunch will be provided at about noon, and there is an opportunity for attendees to mingle with presenters, he noted.

"What we'd like to do is, for those who have an interest in biodiesel and it can be someone who just is curious about it or someone who wants to start making it, show them how it's done," Riley said. "What you need as far as a processor and input, and then we'll have experts there who have been using and making biodiesel for five or six years."

The event is not part of the Spring Fair, running at the fairgrounds concurrently.

During the seminar, Wilson Creek resident John Ousterhout will share the vehicle he's converted to burn straight vegetable oil.

The council has been putting on such seminars for a number of years, and Riley believes the level of interest has increased over time as fuel costs have gotten larger.

"It certainly is a different world today than it was a year and a half ago when we had an interest," Riley said. "Things have happened that no one could have predicted. Soybeans are over $14 a bushel, wheat is over $10, corn is over $5 a bushel. These are phenomenal prices, and so they've changed, really, the biofuel and energy world, as you can see just by filling up your vehicle at the pump."

Two years ago, state legislators allocated about $10 million in low-cost loans and grants to help build biodiesel facilities.

"Today, as you might guess, with these prices which no one could have predicted, it makes no economic sense to build one of these facilities right now," Riley said. "We had hoped and expected farmers would shift some of their production from these grains into growing oilseeds, but the world market has created such a demand for wheat, corn and soybeans, today in the state of Washington, we're still growing less than 8,000 acres of oilseeds. That simply is not enough to support the construction of a plant."

Most biodiesel plants cost about $1 million per million gallons, Riley noted, so there isn't the input of oilseeds to justify building them. But there still is the opportunity on a smaller scale to make biodiesel out of used restaurant oil, he added.

"Any time you can recycle a product like that and get a second use out of it, you're helping out the environment as well as creating an economic opportunity," Riley said.

The council is hoping to draw about 40 people to the seminar Saturday.

Getting the public to experience the benefits of using biodiesel made from recycled vegetable oil will take a while, Riley allowed.

"If they only want to learn about biodiesel, we're happy to teach them that," Riley said. "But if we can find three or four individuals who would like to start making their own biodiesel and use it in their diesel trucks or cars, we'll be happy with that."

For more information, call Riley at 509-246-0946.