Farmer Invents $100 Device that Replaces Diesel Fuel for Irrigation

May 2nd, 2011 by Tina Casey

With the current price of diesel fuel stuck at around $4.00 per gallon, our diesel-dependent agriculture industry is in a fix. But thanks to a small grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, one farmer has invented a new device that chips away at some of that. At a cost of $100 or less, he came up with a hydo-powered system that replaces the diesel engine formerly needed to drive his irrigation system. At today’s prices, he estimates an annual savings of $3,500.

Crop Circles and Diesel Fuel

The farmer in question, Roger Barton, uses a center pivot irrigation system to grow alfalfa hay for his horses. This type of irrigation system is responsible for those distinctive crop circles you can see from up above. It conserves water compared to some other types but it requires a diesel engine to keep moving, and that’s where the trouble comes in.

A Simple Alternative to Diesel Fuel

Barton received a modest Conservation Innovation Grant from the USDA, which enabled him to work with a pump company and pick the brains of engineers from USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. Together they came up with a low cost water-powered turbine that generates electricity for the irrigation system. Aside from saving money on fuel, Barton will save wear and tear on his irrigation equipment. His mountain-sourced water supply is under pressure high enough to damage the sprinkler heads, but now the turbine blades result in a reduced pressure that won’t cause damage.

Agriculture and Conservation

The consumer sector has a few things to learn from agriculture when it comes to conservation. Take water, for instance. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, water use in the U.S. has declined over the past 25 years or so, even though the population has increased by about 30 percent and average use by individuals went up. The savings is mainly due to improvements in the agricultural and power generation sectors.

More Energy Savings for Agriculture

The new irrigation invention is just a small part of a much broader government funded program to support more conservation and alternative energy at U.S. farms. One standout example is the U.S. EPA’s AgStar program, which encourages livestock farmers to generate renewable biogas at their farms. The USDA also has a renewable energy program to introduce more wind, solar, biomass and geothermal at farms, and it is offering loans and grants for efficiency improvements in targeted equipment such as grain dryers.

Update and clarification (thanks to reader James Brogdin, see comment below): The $100 estimate refers to annual operating costs.

Image: Farm crop circles by dsearls on flickr.com.

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Tags: center pivot irrigation, crop circles, eliminating diesel fuel, farmer saving money, usda

About the Author

Tina Casey Tina Casey specializes in military and corporate sustainability, advanced technology, emerging materials, biofuels, and water and wastewater issues. Tina’s articles are reposted frequently on Reuters, Scientific American, and many other sites. Views expressed are her own. Follow her on Twitter @TinaMCasey and Google+.

http://www.facebook.com/james.vandamme James M. Van Damme

That extra water pressure was just going to waste. This is low hanging fruit. There’s plenty of negawatts to be found, folks, let’s go find ‘em!
Pingback: Tiny Federal Program Will Save Enough Water to Supply a City – CleanTechnica: Cleantech innovation news and views
http://dottribes.com/iev Corina|EV

This invention is a great acomplishment but the system costs are too high! Maybe in the future someone will come along with an idea that makes it cheaper so that it can be afforded…
- Anonymous
  
  The farmer is saving $3,500 per year with a $17,000 expenditure.
  
  The initial cost will be repaid in less than 5 years, a 14.8% return on investment. After the initial cost is recovered the farmer will be putting that $3,500 in his pocket. I’d say that’s a very affordable system.
  
  But looking at what is involved, not much more than a small turbine fitted to a hydraulic pump, I’d say that a good deal of the $17k went into design, not the system itself. Additional units should be considerably less expensive.
Anonymous

I think there’s a problem in the source article. It states…

“low cost water-powered turbine that generates electricity for the irrigation system”

But then it talks about …

“water enters his new system it travels through the vanes of the turbine (Fig. 1), causing the turbine to spin and turn a hydraulic pump that pumps hydraulic fluid through gears that turn the wheels, moving the long irrigation boom around the circle”

The Farm Press must have picked up this article somewhere else, there’s the “Fig.1″ but no figure on their page and I find no link to the original article.