tuesday, december 1, 1981
daily nebraskan
page 3
By Tom Struebing
What is being billed as "the farm of the
future is only four months away from
reality.
Located at the UNL Field Laboratory
near Mead, the 157-acre farm is being crea
ted to save energy and integrate alternate
fuels so that someday it will be totally in
dependent from petroleum.
Dennis Schulte, associate professor of
agricultural engineering, said the farm is
scheduled to be completed about mid
March, and will be a demonstration farm
for three years.
Schulte said a solar cell, alcohol still,
irrigation engines, low-pressure center pivot
and grain and feed handling center are al
ready in operation at the farm.
The UNL farm was given an $812,000
grant by the U.S. Department of Energy
for the research and demonstration project,
which is under the direction of UNL's Ag
riculture and Natural Resources Institute.
The farm's objective is to reduce the
amount of petroleum used in grain and
livestock farming, said Bradley Rein, the
farm's project engineer.
"In order to do this, well be looking at
several different sources of alternate fuel,"
said Rein.
Rein said the farm will use solar energy
and alcohol produced from crops. The
three major crops on the farm are corn, soy
beans and sweet sorghum.
The sweet sorghum is used in the alco
hol still to produce enough alcohol to run
two irrigation engines and a tractor, Rein
said.
The newly completed" alcohol still went
into production about a month ago, Schul
te said. The still is designed to produce 20
gallons per hour.
"We raise enough corn to feed the hogs
and enough soy beans to supply their pro
tein supplement," Schulte said.
Mi
Phi Alpha Theta histor
honorary will meet tonight
at 6:30 in the Nebraska
Union. Students who have
at least 12 credit hours of
history are welcome. A film
will be shown. Room numb
er will be posted.
Exit interviews for Dec
ember graduates who have
had National Direct Student
Loans will be in the Ne
braska Union Dec. 10 at
noon; Dec. 11 at 10 ajn.;
Dec. 14 at 7 p.m.; and Dec.
15 at 3 p.m. For details,
contact the Office of
Scholarships and Financial
Aids at 472-2030.
NU Meds will sponsor a
stress management work
shop Dec. 2, at 7 p.m. in the
Nebraska Union. Room
number will be posted.
The Health Center Board
will meet Dec. 3 at 11 ajn.
in the University Health
Center. All interested
people are invited to attend.
Gunnys
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efficient farm at
"This dictates the amount of alcohol wc
have to produce to raise these crops."
Hogs provide energy
The hogs themselves are an energy
source, Rein said. Methane gas at the farm
is produced from hog manure, he said.
All of the manure will run through a di
gester where methane gas is produced in a
unit that will produce electricity and hot
water for the entire farm, Rein explained.
After the waste goes through the di
gester, it goes to a lagoon and then to the
fields. The waste should supply half the
farm's fertilizer requirements, Rein said.
Schulte said that crushing soy beans in a
mechanical screw press expels oil that can
be used as a replacement for diesel fuel.
The crushed beans are used as hog feed.
To dry the grain, a five-horsepower fan
blows unheated air through the storage bin
rather than a conventional grain dryer.
Normally, a grain dryer of similar size
would require a 10-horsepower engine and
several hundred gallons of propane to heat
the air, Schulte said.
Rein said the energy farm is demonstra
ting two types of irrigation systems: the
automated surface irrigation system and
the low-pressure center pivot.
The surface system uses an alcohol en
gine to pump water from underground to a
surface reservoir, Rein said. A large solar
cell provides power to pump the water
from the reservoir for irrigating the fields.
Schulte said the solar cell is a system
that produces electricity directly from sun
radiation.
Rein said the center pivot is run by an
engine fueled by straight 180-proof alco
hol. Solar systems used
Passive and active solar systems are used
to heat the swine confinement, Rein said.
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An active collector is used to maintain
temperatures in the floor. A fan with ducts
circulates air through the confinement.
Rein said. He said a solar wall is designed
to preheat the ventilation air that goes into
the nursery and farrowing rooms.
A greenhouse will also have a solar wall
that will collect heat in the day and radiate
it back at night, Rein said.
'The wall is filled with sand and when
the sun hits it, it absorbs the heat, he said.
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"The wall becomes warmer and at night
the heat goes back into the room."
Rein said the greenhouse will use car
bon dioxide produced from the alcohol
plant to enhance plant growth.
The energy farm also uses such conser
vation forms as wind breaks and conser
vation tillage.
"By integrating alternate energy sources
and using conservation techniques, we
hope to reduce our fossil fuel input by SO
percent or more," Rein said.
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