One mile southwest of Salt Lake International Airport, a 20-acre crop of safflower plants is growing on previously unused municipal land, reports USA TODAY.
This fall the plot will be harvested, and oil from the plants will be processed into biodiesel fuel to operate Salt Lake County vehicles.
Called FreeWays to Fuel, the program is the brainchild of Utah State doctoral student Dallas Hanks, 47, of Salt Lake City. He estimates there are as many as 10 million acres of highway rights of way throughout the nation that could be used the same way. Currently, local and state governments must spend taxpayer money to maintain those lands by mowing or spraying for weeds.
“It just seems wasteful to me that we have all this land we are mowing,” Hanks says. “It takes money to maintain. We’re putting money into it but gaining nothing right now.”
“It’s a very innovative idea,” he says. “I’m a Missouri boy. You’re really going to have to show me before I buy into what you’re claiming, and FreeWays to Fuel is showing me.”
Programs in Michigan and Tennessee have committed to developing plots next year, and a sister project at North Carolina State University has already produced two harvests.
Photo by Deseret News.