Grain producers want research on barley-fueled facility

12/05 By MARK POWELL

Maryland farmers, like ag leaders in New Jersey, have begun exploring the potential of producing ethanol in the Mid-Atlantic region.
While New Jersey Farm Bureau has just announced a second round of detailed study for a facility using corn from the Garden State, the Maryland Grain Producers Utilization Board announced last week that it wants a feasibility study of an ethanol facility utilizing barley.
Lynne Hoot, executive director for the board, said a barley-based ethanol facility could be a good fit for Maryland.
“We’re a corn-deficit state,” she said. “And barley is a crop we’d like to create a better market for. A lot of Eastern Shore farmers would like to grow barley; they can harvest it earlier than wheat and get better yields on double crop soybeans.”
Hoot said an Archer Daniels Midland facility in Minnesota is currently producing ethanol from a blend of barley, wheat and corn.
Although there is as yet no evidence to support the case for a barley ethanol plant, if such a facility was built, there is some possibility of selling the barley “mash” as a feedstock to the poultry industry as well as selling the ethanol.
Currently barley is not used in feed rations for chickens on Delmarva because the small grain is not easily digested and produces runny manure.
The grain producers utilization board, which manages the proceeds of the state’s grain checkoff, in the past has invested in studies of hulless barley which could make the grain more acceptable to the poultry industry, which would in turn make the crop more profitable.
The utilization board is asking for proposals from researchers who could determine how economically feasible a barley-based ethanol plant would be. Researchers can also examine the potential for including wheat and corn in a blend for such a facility, but the utilization board specifically wants a use for barley in the research proposals.
Those interested in proposing a research project on the Maryland ethanol facility should call Hoot at (410) 956-5771. The deadline for proposals is Dec. 29 by 4 p.m. Hoot expects the board to make a decision in January for a research project that would be completed by June.
The interest in ethanol facilities has been fueled lately by an anticipation from many experts that the petroleum-based fuel additive MTBE will be phased out by the federal government in response to news that the chemical is polluting drinking water in many parts of the country. MTBE was required by the Environmental Protection Agency to make gasoline burn more cleanly. Ethanol can do essentially the same task.
President Clinton has also signed an executive order which encourages the production and use of such “green” fuels.