A group of investors led by a Minot, N.D., man wants to join forces with a Moorhead manufacturing company to test whether an ambitious plan to turn old tires into oil is environmentally feasible.
Ervin Lee of Minot and his group of investors - who include his brothers and Ron Nichols, the inventor of the oil-from-tires process - purchased a 9,000-ton pile of whole and shredded tires from Moorhead's former Tire Depot earlier this year.
The group has been hauling tires from the site to its testing plant on a farm in Berthold, N.D. After the tires are shredded, workers extract oil and other petroleum products using a patented process involving heat and a chemical catalyst.
Their experimental plant in Berthold heats the tires to a temperature less than 800 degrees Fahrenheit before a "secret" chemical compound is added that breaks down the tires.
Materials collected from the process include carbon black, butane gas, scrap metal and fuel oil.
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If the tire recycling works as planned, Lee's group hopes to someday build a $15 million facility in the Fargo-Moorhead area that would process 3,000 tires a day and employ up to 35 people.
"This technology is absolutely phenomenal," Moorhead City Manager Bruce Messelt said. "It is amazing to think we're close to having this be a viable technology."
Busch Agricultural Resources of Moorhead - the barley malting company partnering with Lee's group - held a public hearing Tuesday as part of a Minnesota Pollution Control Agency application process to test the alternative fuel resulting from the used tires and amend its air emissions permit.
The MPCA may hold its own public hearings on the matter during a 30-day notification period that will begin soon, depending on whether the public requests them.
But there likely won't be any problems with the permit change because fuel from tire oil is less harmful to the environment than the oil now used by Busch Agricultural Resources, said Dan Olson, an MPCA public information officer.
If the permit change is approved, the MPCA will visit the Busch plant and help run emission tests on the fuel, said Paul Lee, brother of Ervin Lee and spokesman for the investor group.
Results from the test will be made public, said Gregory Ballentine, Moorhead Busch plant manager.
"We can provide (Busch) with a cost savings and still have a profitable operation doing that," Paul Lee said.
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Beyond its environmental benefits, the alternative fuel would cost less and make operation of the Busch plant more competitive with large-scale malt producers, according to Tuesday's presentation from Ballentine.
Readers can reach Forum reporter Joe Whetham at (701) 241-5557
