![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.cals.ncsu.edu\/agcomm\/news-center\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2011\/02\/N27_4-225x300.jpg\" "\\"N27_4\\"")
<\/a>\u201cCanola is a really viable, economically advantageous crop, and it produces good oil,\u201d Veal says. \u201cThe sunflowers performed marginally, but we think that was due to the fact that a significant part of the growing season was very dry.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ted Sherrod, engineer in the DOT Roadside Environmental Unit, worked closely with Veal and his team on the project, along with DOT engineer Ben DeWit, who played a big role in cultivating the partnership between the two organizations.<\/p>\n
\u201cOverall, the program was a success,\u201d says Sherrod, who earned CALS bachelor\u2019s (1982) and master\u2019s (2007) degrees from the BAE Department. \u201cOne of the canola plots exceeded national yield averages, and two other sites had very good yields.\u201d
\nSherrod describes the N.C. State team as \u201cfirst-class scientists and engineers.\u201d
\n\u201cMatt and [BAE] graduate student Michelle Mayer were super partners on the project,\u201d he says. \u201cThey both bring engineering and science attributes to a challenging real-world problem as we search for \u2018power plants\u2019 as alternative fuels.\u201d<\/p>\n
All biomass processing and conversion took place in Weaver Labs, on the N.C. State campus. The biodiesel then was picked up by the state DOT and blended for fleet use.<\/p>\n
The cost to produce the crops was very similar to agriculture production, Veal says, but the advantages are numerous. These crops make use of land that is otherwise unsuitable for growing food crops. The program also helps the state DOT meet new requirements for renewable fuel usage.<\/p>\n
And it helps the state save money in a number of ways, from lowering mowing costs to reducing the need to import biodiesel from other states.<\/p>\n
The program also presents the potential to make money: Canola tillage costs range from $171 per 10-foot strip to $206 per 10-foot strip, and the biodiesel and meal value for that same amount of crop is $355. And the program supports efforts to beautify the state\u2019s highway system.<\/p>\n
Canola for 2011 harvest is in the ground, Veal says, and he\u2019s already getting to work on ways to expand the program.
\n\u201cPower line rights-of-way are the next areas we\u2019re looking at. We\u2019re also exploring ways to make production better and to scale it up to make it more of an enterprise. I\u2019d really like to get more entities, especially farmers, involved,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really believe this program holds great promise for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014Suzanne Stanard<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false,"raw":"If you\u2019ve driven North Carolina highways this year and spotted a blazing yellow plot of canola or a clutch of crimson safflowers along the roadside, you might have been looking at more than just pretty flowers.\n\nOn several plots throughout the state, these crops, along with sunflowers, are being grown for energy.\n\nIn partnership with the North Carolina Department of Transportation, scientists from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences\u2019 Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering (BAE) are participating in the national FreeWays to Fuel initiative, growing biomass crops off highway rights-of-way and converting them to biodiesel to fuel DOT vehicles.\n\nIn fact, N.C. State is among only a handful of universities in the United States producing biofuels from crops grown along the roadside. And the work taking place here has captured the attention of national and local media outlets.\n\nUnder the leadership of Dr. Matt Veal, BAE assistant professor, the College planted four canola crops in fall 2009, in Duplin, Wake, Rutherford and Surry counties. After those crops were harvested in spring 2010, sunflowers were planted in Rutherford and Surry counties, and safflowers in Wake and Duplin Counties. Those harvests took place in fall 2010.\n\nVeal says the program\u2019s first year was a success. A total of 108 gallons of oil were processed from 2,900 pounds of plot-grown canola, with the highest canola yields coming from Rutherford and Surry counties (data for the fall harvests of sunflower and safflower were not available at press time).\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_4666\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"225\" caption=\"Canola seed pods are harvested along a highway.\"] Along the state’s highways, canola crops and sunflowers are being grown for energy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4665,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"source":"","ncst_custom_author":"","ncst_show_custom_author":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[94],"_ncst_magazine_issue":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-4660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-biofuels"],"displayCategory":null,"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4660"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4660"},{"taxonomy":"_ncst_magazine_issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_ncst_magazine_issue?post=4660"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=4660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>[\/caption]\n\n\u201cCanola is a really viable, economically advantageous crop, and it produces good oil,\u201d Veal says. \u201cThe sunflowers performed marginally, but we think that was due to the fact that a significant part of the growing season was very dry.\u201d\n\nTed Sherrod, engineer in the DOT Roadside Environmental Unit, worked closely with Veal and his team on the project, along with DOT engineer Ben DeWit, who played a big role in cultivating the partnership between the two organizations.\n\n\u201cOverall, the program was a success,\u201d says Sherrod, who earned CALS bachelor\u2019s (1982) and master\u2019s (2007) degrees from the BAE Department. \u201cOne of the canola plots exceeded national yield averages, and two other sites had very good yields.\u201d\nSherrod describes the N.C. State team as \u201cfirst-class scientists and engineers.\u201d\n\u201cMatt and [BAE] graduate student Michelle Mayer were super partners on the project,\u201d he says. \u201cThey both bring engineering and science attributes to a challenging real-world problem as we search for \u2018power plants\u2019 as alternative fuels.\u201d\n\nAll biomass processing and conversion took place in Weaver Labs, on the N.C. State campus. The biodiesel then was picked up by the state DOT and blended for fleet use.\n\nThe cost to produce the crops was very similar to agriculture production, Veal says, but the advantages are numerous. These crops make use of land that is otherwise unsuitable for growing food crops. The program also helps the state DOT meet new requirements for renewable fuel usage.\n\nAnd it helps the state save money in a number of ways, from lowering mowing costs to reducing the need to import biodiesel from other states.\n\nThe program also presents the potential to make money: Canola tillage costs range from $171 per 10-foot strip to $206 per 10-foot strip, and the biodiesel and meal value for that same amount of crop is $355. And the program supports efforts to beautify the state\u2019s highway system.\n\nCanola for 2011 harvest is in the ground, Veal says, and he\u2019s already getting to work on ways to expand the program.\n\u201cPower line rights-of-way are the next areas we\u2019re looking at. We\u2019re also exploring ways to make production better and to scale it up to make it more of an enterprise. I\u2019d really like to get more entities, especially farmers, involved,\u201d he says.\n\n\u201cI really believe this program holds great promise for the future.\u201d\n\n\u2014Suzanne Stanard<\/em>"},"excerpt":{"rendered":"