LANESBOROUGH -- Farmer Mike Balawender is growing his own fuel for his farm -- with sunflowers.
Balawender, who operates a farm in Cheshire, is part of a five-farm co-operative that is growing and will soon be pressing sunflower seeds for biodiesel.
The co-operative has 20 acres of sunflowers in a field off Bailey Road in Lanesborough. Once the crop is ready for harvest in the fall, the co-operative hopes to reap about 15 tons of seed, yielding 1,500 gallons of fuel to power farm equipment.
(The success of the biodiesel fuel industry relies heavily on biodiesel testing <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s32Ke2VzrqU>, not only at the production level but at the consumer level, where degraded fuel may cause engine failures. Of major concern to diesel and biodiesel users is the very real possibility that water has contaminated their fuel. (See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YcczdvPyAk). The potential catastrophic impact of this problem is discussed at length in this video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lh4qhXc_5s&feature=youtube_gdata.
Fleet Fuel's family of inexpensive biodiesel test kits is just a click away on the internet at:
<http://fleetbiodiesel.com/biodiesel_testing_and_supplies.html>)