Bob, Matt, and Leif pay a visit to a GMO free producer of regionally grown canola oil.
CABIN ON THE LAKE
The three of them are involved in a business start up that will distribute GMO free, regionally grown, and expeller pressed fryer oil. Matt thought it would be nice to drive down the day before and spend the night in a mini retreat on the shore of Lake Hartwell in NE Georgia. He was right!
IMPRESSIVE OPERATION
The purpose was to visit AgStrong, the oil producer, and to get to know the product and the people behind it better. They crush the seeds which produces both edible oil and meal, which is food for livestock. Robert is the owner and founder of the business. He relocated to North Carolina after spending his childhood in Brazil.
PROCESS CONTROL
The operation is highly automated and monitored and controlled from a computer in the lab. Retained samples of various oils bear testament to the testing and quality control performed on each batch.
TOUR READY
After donning appropriate hair control devices, they were off on a tour of the refining plant. Here, crude oil is sent through a process that removes moisture, free fatty acids, and compound that can cause off flavors.
BIG STEEL
As you can imagine, there was lots of stainless steel tanks, pumps, vacuum producing venturis, filters and the like. The facility is clean and inviting, especially to three guys who love plant tours.
SNOW IN THE FORECAST
They had headed south just as one of the worst winter storms was moving in – to Georgia! AgStrong ships and receives by both truck and rail, and both were in full swing in spite of a few flakes. Fortunately, the guys drove north before the worst of the weather hit.
GOOD ORGANIZATION MAKES FOR GOOD BUSINESS
Bob, Matt, and Leif are no strangers to moving big oily liquids around. All of them have cut their teeth in the commercial biodiesel industry. Bob was impressed with the simple strategies employed to keep hose fitting organized, as well as how clean the place was.
SHIPPING AND RECEIVING
Matt stands in front of 55 gallon drums full of outgoing finished product. On the right, dried distillers grain from mid-western ethanol refineries is being off-loaded into trucks to feed local poultry.
BULK OIL
In addition to selling canola oil, AgStrong purchases other GMO free and organic oils to make custom frying blends for their customers.
OVER TO THE CRUSHING PLANT
They took the tour moving “upstream”. They headed from the refining plant to the crushing plant where the seeds are crushed into crude oil and meal. Large seed storage bins stand behind the crush plant. Into the room where the seeds are pressed. It was full of equipment belching out steam, noise and golden oil.
IMPRESSIVE
Here you can see canola oil dripping out of the press. Canola is about 38% oil by weight. That being said, it takes a lot of seeds to produce a significant volume of oil.
CRUDE OIL
After pressing, the oil is pumped to a tank where it is consolidated and then pumped over to the refining plant for clean up.
AND THEN THERE’S THE MEAL
On the left you can see the canola meal “cake” exiting the press. It is a protein and fat rich product that is a major constituent in animal feed, from cows, to chickens, to pigs. It is moved through a pulverizer and consolidated for shipment.
BIG MEAL
The meal cake is quite hard (like hard plastic) prior to being pulverized. On the right, Robert describes the process in front of a huge pile of pulverized meal.
OUT IT GOES
Semi trucks pull into the building, on top of a truck scale. The trucks are loaded with a front-end loader which feeds a machine which augers it up into the truck. The machine housing on the right is happy with the results!