By Lori EhdeResidents who rely on natural gas to heat their homes will see even higher energy bills this winter thanks to rising natural gas prices.Since last summer at this time, natural gas prices have increased roughly 20 percent.But homeowners aren’t the only ones affected by the increase.The rising natural gas prices are driving up the cost of farming and the cost of producing ethanol and soy diesel, as well.Nitrogen, which is derived from natural gas, is the main component in fertilizer widely used for area crops.Natural gas is also the energy source driving the process for ethanol and soy diesel production.Fertilizer is one of the biggest input costs in farming operations, so rising natural gas prices hit some pocket books several times over. A corn producer, for example, could pay more to heat his house, to grow the corn, to dry it in the bin and again to process it into ethanol.There must be a cheaper, better way …For this reason, corn and soybean producers and investors in ethanol and soydiesel production are seeking cheaper sources of energy to get the job done.Sen. Norm Coleman was in Brewster Thursday, Aug. 7, meeting with representatives of the soybean processing plant there. Also present were researchers from the U of M and Southwest State University, Marshall.They announced that they’re working on a research project to find a lower-cost energy alternative for natural gas to use in soybean and corn processing.Eugene (Pucky) Sandager is a Hills corn and soybean grower and was recently elected to the board of the National Corn Growers Association.He attended Thursday’s meeting and said he supported the alternative energy research.Sandager said this may come in the form of wind, biomass or even using some of the by-products of soy processing, such as soybean oil."They’re looking at different alternatives so we’re not so dependent on natural gas for energy sources as input in the process," said Sandager, who also serves on the National Corn Growers Public Policy Action Team."It used to be a low-cost product, and now they’ve jacked the price up."Bob Kirchner, president of the Minnesota Soybean Processing Plant in Brewster, said the plant is building its own natural gas line, tapping into a main line in an effort to control costs.It will be built and managed by Great Plains Gas, but will be owned by Minnesota Soybean Processors.Background on the Brewster plantThe Brewster soybean processing plant draws soybeans from fields in a 60-mile radius of the plant.The plant has 2,300 member investors, and the average investment overall is $13,000 per member. Of those, there are roughly 250 Rock County members.The group started organizing in 1999, ground breaking was Oct. 24, 2002, and the target date to be fully operational is Nov. 1.The Brewster facility is considered a "crush plant," – crushing raw soybeans into meal that’s used as high-protein livestock feed.Crude soybean oil is removed in the process, and marketed primarily for food-grade consumption.And a small portion of soybean oil is marketed for industrial use, such as lubricants, solvents and fuel.Kirchner said plans are already in the works for a phase 2 expansion that would add a bio-diesel refinery to the plant.
