Des Moines Register
05-13-07
Brothers of invention turn cobs into potential gold
Twins’ innovation collectscorn waste for biofuel use
By JERRY PERKINS
REGISTER FARM EDITOR
Nebraska City, Neb. — For the past 10 years, harvesting corn and selling the
cobs has been a humble little business for Ty and Jay Stukenholtz, 34-year-old
twin brothers.
By trial and error, computer designing, tinkering and banging away, the
Stukenholtz brothers, who farm the 350-acre family farm near Nebraska City,
came up with a way to harvest corn cobs and kernels at the same time and keep
the materials separate.
Until now, the brothers’ invention has had limited appeal because of the small
market for corn cobs, save as cattle feed or in some limited industrial uses.
But that might be about to change as ethanol makers look into producing ethanol
from crop residue and other biomass, including the cobs, leaves and stalks from
corn plants.
The potential use of corn cobs and other plant material as an ethanol feedstock
has the brothers Stukenholtz and their business partner, Beth Pihlblad of
Waukee, thinking that they might be sitting on the hottest new product in the farm
equipment business.
“Our goal was to build a cleaner that can attach to the back of a combine with a
tank on top for the cobs,” Ty said.
“It’s universal, so it fits on any combine,” said Jay, finishing Ty’s thought.
Ty and Jay are identical twins except for the fact that Ty is right-handed and Jay
is left-handed. Their thinking is as complementary as their dexterity, they say, so
they form two halves of an inventing whole.
“What one of them doesn’t think of, the other does,” said Pihlblad, whose family
has farming interests near the Stukenholtz brothers’ farm.
In January, Pihlblad and the Stukenholtz twins formed a limited liability company
called Ceres Agriculture Consultants, based in Waukee.
The company intends to produce or license the twins’ biomass collection system
to a farm equipment manufacturer and provide other renewable fuel services.
“We want the attachment to fit on older and new combines so that a farm
equipment maker can offer it as a kit for their customers,” Jay said. “We’ll license
the technology to a farm equipment company.”
The brothers have made about a dozen different versions of their cob collector.
Their 10th version is attached to a 2388 Case IH combine.
As the combine moves through the field, it pulls whole corn plants into the corn
head mounted on the front of the combine.
Corn kernels are separated from the cobs and other parts of the corn plant and
the kernels are routed into the combine’s conventional grain storage tank.
The Stukenholtz brothers’ innovation fits on the back of a combine, where the
leaves, cobs and other shredded corn plant residue is normally flung out and
onto the ground.
Instead, the brothers have come up with a device that consists of a series of
sieves and fans that separate the different parts of the corn residue as it moves
to the back of the combine.
The cobs, once separated from the other parts of the corn plant, are sent to a
tank that sits atop the combine.
The tank is designed to slide to one side so it can discharge the cobs into a
wagon.
Other plant residues like soybean pods also can be gleaned by setting the sieves
and fans in a different configuration.
It’s been 10 years since the Stukenholtz brothers started tinkering around with a
corn cob collector.
They’ve made about a dozen versions, including one that is being used by Dan
Allen of Allendan Seed Co. in Winterset.
Allen grows and sells 300 species of native grasses and wildflowers. Separating
the tiny grass and flower seeds from the rest of the plant materials is a challenge.
“We tried for 10 years to get someone to help us with harvesting seeds,” Allen
said. “I don’t know where we’d be without their help.”
But it’s in the emerging field of cellulosic ethanol that the Stukenholtz brothers
and Pihl-blad think their machine will really take off.
Poet Energy, the ethanol producer formerly known as Broin Cos., plans to use
corn cobs to make ethanol at its Emmetsburg plant. Poet has said the plant will
need 450 to 500 tons of cobs a day to make cellulosic ethanol.
Nathan Schock, director of public relations, said Poet has been working with
several developers, including the Stukenholtz brothers.
Stuart Birrell, who leads Iowa State University’s research on biomass
collection, said the problem of harvesting, collecting and transporting biomass
material must be solved before the new technology can be adapted.
Although Birrell said he hasn’t seen the Stukenholtzes’ attachment at work,
cellulosic ethanol production will need innovations like theirs to solve roadblocks
to produce ethanol from biomass.
Jerry Perkins can be reached at (515) 284-8456 or jperkins@dmreg.com